Brief SKetcKes of Men Who
are MaKing History in
tHe SagebrvisH State
Published by
BESSIE BEATTY
HOME PRINTING COMPANY. Los ANGELES. CAL.
1 907
W 7
Copyright 1907,
by
BESSIE BEATTY
To the Unknown Heroes of the Pick and Pan
Work that's done, and the prize that's won —
These be the cheerful tales —
There's a minor note that grips the throat;
What of the man who fails?
Pledge a health to the hard earned wealth,
Hail to the men who win —
And to those who wait at the golden gate
For the ship that never comes in.
That unsung horde whose ranks are broad,
Knights of the pick and pan;
They toil and sow, and the next who go
Harvest what they began.
The sort that stays for the endless days
In the Never Never Land;
The golden dream is a vanishing gleam
Like the phantom lake in the sand —
Till the grind is past, and they set at last
Out on the last long trail,
Where the sun has set and beyond it yet —
Here's to the men who fail!
— Ruth Comfort Mitchell
Page
NEVADA 15
Newlands, Hon. Francis G 24
Nixon, Hon. George S 27
Bartlett, Hon. George A 30
Sparks, Governor John 33
Dickerson, Hon. D. S 36
Colcord, Hon. R. K 38
Adams, Hon. Jewett W 40
TONOPAH DISTRICT— Tonopah 45
Butler, Jim 48
Oddie, T. L 51
Macdonald, Malcolm 53
Gillies, Donald B 57
Schwab, Charles M , 61
Salsberry, John 64
O'Brien, Judge J. P 66
Brown, Hugh H 68
Mushett, L. L 70
Pittman, Key 72
Kendall, Zeb 73
Smith, Bert L 74
Macdonald, Irving 76
Moran, William J 78
Grimes, Charles T 80
Duvall, Marius 82
Russell, Will C .' 84
Bell, Thomas Jefferson 86
McKane, John Y 88
Kirchen, John 90
GOLDFIELD DISTRICT— Goldfield 95
Loftus, J. P 98
Davis, James R 101
Lockhart, Thomas G . 104
Wingfield, George 107
Myers, A. D 110
Macmillan, J. H 113
Holleran, George B 116
Turner, Dr. D. A 118
Clark, W. H 122
Patrick, L. L 124
Detch, Milton M 126
Weber, Henry 128
Douglas, J. F 130
McCormack, J. C 132
Stimler, Harry C 134
Higginson, C. B 136
Codd, A. A 138
Donnellan, John Tilton 140
Stone, Walter Corbaley 142
Parkinson, Webb H 144
CONTENTS Page
Boyer, Harry W 146
Thomas, Evans Whitcomb 148
Lind, H. B 150
Murdock, Charles R 152
Baxter, Harold 154
Siebert, Fred 156
Thayer, Eufus C 158
Johnson, Gilbert Stanton 160
Savage, Leslie Loring 162
Brown, Alden H 164
MacMaster, H. D 166
Whittemore, C. 0 168
Sprague, Charles S 170
Lindsay, J. L 172
Vahrenkamp, Fred. H 174
Curtis, Loren B 176
Ish, Milton C 179
Turner, Ephrim DeMore 182
Tinnin, John 185
BULLFROG DISTRICT— Bullfrog 189
Montgomery, E. A 192
Hoveck, Matt 197
Busch Brothers 200
Mann, Curtis 203
Ray, Judge L. 0 206
Lindsay, Sam F 208
Lindsay, J. B 210
Cadogan, John L 212
McGarry, Leonard B 214
Fagan, John L 216
Murphy, Dan 218
Mannix, Frank P 220
McMahon, Harry G 222
MANHATTAN DISTRICT— Manhattan 225
Boak, Cada C 229
Humphrey, John Carl 232
Naughton, Frank 234
Meder, Ross 236
Raymond, Edward L 238
ROUND MOUNTAIN DISTRICT— Round Mountain 243
Stebbins, John F 248
Bartlett, Henry , 250
Olive, Chester 0 252
Wilson, Thomas 254
NORTHERN NEVADA— The Old Nevada 259
Rickey, Col. T. B 263
Platt, Samuel 266
Smith, Oscar J 268
Ridge, W. R 271
Burro, J 274
Assay 276
FOREWORD
EV ADA'S most valuable asset is her
men.
The land of sand and sagebrush is
a land of real men. There was just
as much gold in Nevada's craggy
brown hills at the beginning of time
as there is today. It was men she needed — men of the
pick and pan to wrest from her secret treasure vaults the
yellow dust for which the world is clamoring; men of
brain, men of brawn, men of courage, real argonauts.
Such men she has today.
Men of Nevada are making history and making it
faster than the men of any other country or of any
other era. Sons of her soil and sons of her adoption
are working together for her good.
A few years ago the United States was bewailing the
fate of Nevada and deploring the decrease of her popu-
lation. Today not only the United States, but the whole
world is looking on with a marveling eye as she grows.
Who are the men behind her growth? the world is
asking.
"Who's Who in Nevada" is the answer to the question.
An effort has been made to have the book authentic in
every particular, and to include in it only the men of
real achievement; the men who have been tried and who
have not been found wanting.
NEVADA
•
NEVADA
UT of the darkness, bred of a great
struggle, came a tiny, glittering star —
the thirty-sixth of the American constel-
lation; a silver born star bringing new
life, new hope and a vast new treasure
store to refill a nation's depleted coffers.
"NEVADA" they called it.
Tiny it was for a little while, and glittering, then shin-
ing forth with a steady, clear light.
Came a cloud, a dark lowering cloud, without a trace
of silver lining. Obscured the star until it barely shone
and sister stars cast pitying glances and whispered of a
day when it would shine no more.
Burst the cloud and lo ! there was a golden lining — yel-
low, yellow gold as if Midas had placed on it his magic
touch.
"NEVADA" again shouted the sister stars, and all
bowed down to do her homage.
Such was the yesterday, the day before and the today
of Nevada. Born of silver she was and sickened of silver
almost unto death only to be born again of gold.
"Gentlemen, when you wish to resume specie payment,
the way to do it is to resume." It was Nevada that made
that famous sentence of President Grant's possible. It was
Nevada that placed in the hands of the union the money
which put the country on a substantial financial footing
when war had ravaged and desolated her.
An elevated plateau or sink lying between the Sierra
Nevadas and the Rocky mountains — a vast area of unin-
habited, barren land stretching 300 miles north and south
and 250 miles east and west, was all that was known of
Who's Who in Nevada.
it sixty years ago. Like the valley of the shadow of
death, it was to the '49ers who hurried through on their
way to California — one of the horrors that must be en-
dured in order to reach the promised land.
Men paused within her domain only long enough to get
water ; and many perished by the way. None dreamed of
the wealth of her hidden treasure caves and none waited
long enough to ask of Mother Nature the reason for all
those hills and valleys.
As long ago as 1775 Father Francisco Garcis, a Fran-
ciscan monk who was one of the little band in search of
California, wandered away from his brothers and trav-
eled in what is now Nevada. As far as is known he was
the first white man to ever set foot on Nevada soil.
Next to come to Nevada were men of a very different
faith. A small company of them was sent out by the
Mormon church and they settled in the Carson valley
and named the town Genoa.
Genoa, the Mormon settlement, was the beginning of
Nevada. Quietly and with little thought of worldly
things, they lived there until the discovery of mineral
wealth brought a horde of gentile fortune seekers into the
country and the mother church called her children home.
The world never suspected then that within half a
dozen years the union would be acknowledging another
state out on the western frontier.
In the mountains east of Carson Valley, where now Vir-
ginia City stands, silver was discovered in 1859. That
was the beginning of her first glorious mining era — an
era that will never be forgotten as long as men mine.
The story of the Comstock would fill volumes. The
foundations of Nevada were laid upon that lode. Silver
was the cry then and word of its discovery traveled upon
Who's Who in Nevada.
tfie winds. Telegraph lines and trains were unknown to
the west, but they were unnecessary. The prospector
passed the word to a fellow prospector on his way to Cali-
fornia, and California mining fields were deserted for the
new El Dorado. The man going across the plains into
the East carried the word in that direction. Roads were
built across the mountains. Men flocked from every quar-
ter and began piercing into the mountains, ripping them,
opening and wresting from them, their treasure store. A
town was built and they called it Virginia City. Another
one was built and it was Gold Hill. Business houses were
opened, saloons and gambling halls lined the main streets,
newspapers were published ; soon a train came winding
its way up the valley and into the heart of the mining
camp. Civilization had arrived. It was a civilization such
as had never been seen before and will never be seen again.
Day and night men worked and schemed and fought and
died and still the mines poured out wealth. Millionaires
and bank presidents, statesmen and railroad kings were
made. Speculation ran riot and the frenzied gambling
spirit seized all. Four stock exchanges were operated in
Virginia City and hundreds of thousands of dollars
changed hands in a day. The wildcat was more numerous
and more menacing than it has ever been since. Every
booster saw a hundred Comstocks where there was but
one. The stock market rose and tumbled and rose and fell
again. Hard times came and discontent and distrust
seized the people. The Comstock days were over, said
the wise, but the Comstock days had only begun.
After the depression came greater activity than ever,
and again and again when the world thought the Com-
stock had outlived its usefulness the good old mining dis-
trict proved the half its story had not been written. Even
Who's Who in Nevada.
today when the brick buildings which were once the scene
of busy, bustling life, are crumbling ruins, when the shakes
are falling off the roofs, the mines are being worked and
with the promise of new wealth. Whether or not the
Comstock has a future as well as a great past remains to
be proved. It may be that the Comstock will again have
a wondrous tale to tell. The world's greatest geologists
and engineers have been giving the Comstock their at-
tention and with the improved methods for draining the
mines and for deep mining at reduced expense, it may be
that more millionaires will be made in Virginia City.
If the Comstock never again becomes a producer the
world is richer $680,000,000 from her output. She built
the foundations of old San Francisco. She connected the
old world and the new with cables. She spanned the con-
tinents with railroads — in short, she made the whole
world richer while she grew poorer. When the Comstock
days were over and the books were balanced there was
little money to the credit of Nevada. The gold which
came out of her mineral treasuries went to other places
and with it went the men she had made millionaires. Her
population, which reached the high water mark of 160,000
between 1863 and 1865 dwindled to 40,000 in the early
nineties. The state became little more than a cattle camp
as compared with its former glory.
It was while the mining excitement was at its height
that Nevada, the state, came into being. In the winter of
1860 and 1861 Nevada was organized as a territory by an
act of Congress and James W. Nye of New York was
appointed Governor. The first territorial legislature met
at Carson, November, 1861, and in July, 1864, seventeen
delegates met to frame a state constitution. Laughed at
because they were trying to do the impossible, they went
Who's Who in Nevada.
to work and day and night they kept at it. They met in
an empty court room, took a collection to buy candles and
there they kindled a flame that will never die. That little
band of big men espousing an unpopular cause stirred the
heart of an untamed country until theirs became the only
cause and every man was for statehood and the Union. In
September of that year the constitution was adopted at a
time of general financial depression, the thirty-sixth star
in the American constellation began to shine. The ad-
mission of Nevada with its population two to one for Lin-
coln, gave the president the kind of backing that was
needed at that time and the two additional senators gave
the Union a safe majority.
Nevada coin was poured into the treasury and the
greenback was restored to its former value. In a wilder-
ness was built an empire.
The Carson City of today has not forgotten that other
day, nearly half a century ago. Many of the most illus-
trious of the history makers have gone to the silent city
and others are living quietly in the past. They do not
know much of this new Nevada nor do they care much.
The Carson City of today is as somnolent as Rip Van
Winkle's Sleepy Hollow. Once every two years it awakes
and then there is life for a brief season.
A wit who passed through the capital in the middle of
a midsummer day stopped long enough to look up at the
beautiful trees which line the main street, listened to the
birds sing and passed on again. He dubbed it the town
of time and titles — the city of the unburied dead. It is
possible the 4,000 inhabitants of Carson might resent the
wit's remark, or perhaps they would only smile indulg-
ently and think of the past.
A beautiful spot is this capital with its fine buildings
Who's Who in Nevada.
looming above stately trees. Here is the United States
mint built during the Comstock days, but now used only
as an assay office. Here also is the finest law library west
of the Rockies. The educational affairs of the state are
administered from here and Nevada has not been neglect-
ful of the cause of education. The school fund is the
largest per capita of any state in the union. As a resi-
dence town, Carson City has not a superior in the state.
It was named after the famous scout and frontiersman,
Kit Carson.
With the demonitization of silver bringing the great
cloud upon Nevada, Carson and the other cities and towns
of the North suffered much, but the prosperity which has
come in the last four, five or six years has put new life
and new impetus into even the most remote sections.
All of the old camps — for the Comstock can not claim
all of Nevada's past glory — have benefitted by this new
change in the state's affairs.
Austin, the bonanza camp of 1860 which added $62,-
000,000 to Nevada's mineral output, has taken new life
since the discovery of the southern camps. Pioche, the
discovery of 1865, with $80,000,000 to her credit; Eureka,
discovered one year later and giving to the world
$44,000,000 ; Jefferson Canyon, Tuscarora, Mountain City,
Candelaria and Ely, all of which produced from $20,000,-
ooo to $40,000,000 — these practically abandoned with the
demonitization of silver, are now being worked actively.
The cloud has passed. The golden lining is spread that
all may see.
THE NEW NEVADA IS HERE.
It is a brighter, better Nevada than any the world has
yet seen. The Comstock was first, and it will never be
Who's Who in Nevada.
forgotten, but no more will Tonopah and Goldfield and
Bullfrog and the others of the Nevada gold camps.
It is to these camps that Nevada looks for her future.
Twenty years ago, even ten years ago, Nevada had the
pity of her sister states. Today she can have nothing but
admiration and the homage which is her due.
The silver state has become the gold state and a goodly
abundance of copper has been added to make her measure
of wealth pressed down and brimming over.
When Jim Butler discovered Tonopah he created a new
state and the men who came after him and made from his
small beginning a gigantic continuation, deserve no less
credit.
In a graveyard of dead volcanos a mining world is
being built. The wilderness of lava which has been
shunned by all men for so many years is a magnet which
is drawing humanity from east and west, from north and
south. Ground which has been passed over as barren of
valuable ore by some of the noted minerologists has been
proved to contain fabulous riches. Indications and stand-
ards which have served the rest of the mineral world well
enough are of no use in this new mineral belt.
Less than seven years ago the name of Tonopah was
put upon the map. Three years later came Goldfield, dis-
covered by prospectors from Tonopah, and next in suc-
cession came Bullfrog, Manhattan and Round Mountain
with a dozen others of more or less prominence.
First a stray tent or two, then the first load of lumber
hauled into camp across the desert and a frame dwelling
as the result and in little more time than it would take
a fairy to wave a wand, a camp, a town, and then a city
has been built. The miner's candle is exchanged for elec-
tric light, the sheet iron cook stove for an electric range,
Who's Who in Nevada.
the tent for an elaborate home or office, the burro for an
automobile, and the freighting wagon for a locomotive.
To the man who has not seen the marvels of the trans-
formation of the Nevada desert moist seem as a fairy
tale.
The last edition of the days of '49 is being written and
soon the death knell of the frontier must be sounded. The
picturesque is making way for the practical. The piercing
blast of the locomotive is penetrating to parts that have
heretofore known no sound other than the cry of the coyote
or the bray of the desert canary toiling over the sand with
the prospector's pack upon his back.
Men are fighting the fight with the elements and it is a
glorious fight. Southern Nevada must now win on its
merits.
Goldfield and Tonopah have passed through their wild-
cat speculative stage when fortunes were made and lost
on paper, when more mining was done in other people's
pockets than in the ground. The stock market will go up
and down and good times and hard times may vie with
each other for first place, but the mills of the miner will
grind on slowly but surely. Whether the stock market is
up or down, the mines will be turning out their wealth to
enrich the world. The prospector is still plodding over
the hills with his pick and his pan. He knows little of
the condition of the market and cares less. He is looking
for gold — virgin gold. He is unheard of until he finds
the pay streak and then the path that only he and his burro
have trod is followed by a horde of gold-mad men.
The prospect of yesterday is the mine of today. Before
the world ever heard of Southern Nevada, the sage brush
state had given in precious metals one billion four hundred
and forty-two million dollars. At the present rate of pro-
Who's Who in Nevada.
duction Goldfield and Tonopah are adding each year thirty
million dollars to this aggregate.
And the end is far distant. For years upon years must
the State continue her golden outpouring, giving freely of
her wealth to the world's depleted treasuries, making name
and fame for this empire of the West, and taking as her
right the praise and homage bestowed upon Croesus' store-
house. Nevada.
\v. •
Who's Who in Nevada.
HON. FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS
HE future historian who does justice to
the real benefactors of the West — to
those who have done most in thought
and action, must place Senator Francis
G. Newlands in the first rank.
Why ? Not for one reason or two rea-
sons or three reasons, but for any number of reasons.
First, because the senior senator from Nevada is the
author of the National Reclamation Act which is making
the desert blossom as the rose; the act which committed
the government to the policy of paternalism and made
federal moneys available for private enterprise.
It was the Nevada Senator, who, when private capital
found it impossible to handle the problems of irrigation,
conceived the idea of having the government undertake
the work of reclaiming the arid lands of the West. It was
the Nevada Senator who conceived the idea of building
reservoirs to conserve the flood waters for irrigation in
dry seasons.
It was in compliment to the Nevada Senator that the
first four million dollars of government money expended
under this act went to Nevada.
The act was one of the most important ever passed by
Congress. It will mean to Nevada, permanent prosperity ;
to the West, continued progress ; to the entire country,
freedom from the congested life of the cities.
The master mind of a thinking man was necessary to
conceive this gigantic plan and other master minds were
quick to grasp the magnitude of it and to assist in making
it one of the most important issues of the day.
Not a Republican and yet not essentially a Democrat, is
Senator Newlands. He is an American. Men and meas-
HON. FRANCIS G. NEWLANDS
Who's Who in Nevada.
ures claim his attention and party prejudice is not allowed
to enter where the best welfare of the greatest number
is at stake.
He is a true-hearted, big- man, a wise friend of the peo-
ple, a fine speaker and a tactful statesman. A self-made
man is Francis G. Newlands. He was born in Natchez,
Mississippi, and when little more than a boy developed a
taste for affairs of state. He secured an appointment as
clerk in Washington and worked his way through Co-
lumbia Law School, Washington, D. C. He also attended
Yale for a time, but was called from school before he was
able to receive his degree. He was admitted to the bar
in 1870 and began practice of his profession in San Fran-
cisco. Possessed with an analytical mind, a fearless na-
ture and the gift of oratory, it was not long until he at-
tained a high place in legal circles. In 1889 he moved
to Nevada and soon afterward became prominent in the
politics of the state. Three years later he was made candi-
date of the Silver party for Congress and served four
terms. While in the lower house he was active as a com-
mitteeman and he occupied a prominent place on the cur-
rency committee, the committee on ways and means and
the committee on foreign affairs. It was in 1902 that he
was elected to the Senate and four years later was again
returned to Washington for further service to his state
and his country.
He has a beautiful home in Reno overlooking the
Truckee river and a charming wife who is a leader in
social life in Nevada and a welcome addition to any
Washington circle. She was formerly Miss Edith McCal-
lister, daughter of Hall McCallister of San Francisco. His
first wife, who died in 1880, was Miss Clara Adelaide
Sharon, a daughter of former United State Senator
William Sharon.
Who's Who in Nevada.
HON. GEORGE S. NIXON
HE practice, which has become a habit,
of indicating public men as examples
worthy of 'emulation by all youths has
been a source of annoyance to many a
lad, and who has not been wearied by
"keep-on, maybe-you'11-be-president"
admonitions? "Who's Who" has no desire to give such
advice to the young men of Nevada, and consequently
will merely outline the steps by which George Nixon rose
from the position of an under-paid telegrapher to that of
United States Senator from Nevada, without attempting
to point a moral.
George S. Nixon was born in Newcastle, Placer County,
California, April 2, 1862. His parents had crossed the
plains to the Pacific Coast eleven years before. In New-
castle the youthful Nixori learned telegraphy, inspired
probably by that unaccountable desire that possesses
nearly every boy when he first hears the mysteries of the
Morse Code. He went to Humboldt, Nevada, as an
employe of the Southern Pacific. He was the agent. His
duties consisted in part of sweeping out, keeping up the
fires, answering questions, sending messages, looking
after freight, keeping cattle off the track, and incidentally
selling tickets to those who had the price and desire to
travel beyond the confines of Humboldt.
In 1883 he went to Belleville, on the Carson and Colo-
rado Railroad, where he acted as agent. His duties were
similar to those he had performed at Humboldt, with the
addition, perhaps, of a few other tasks. After a year
passed in Belleville, the embryonic Senator accepted—
we say "accepted," while as a matter of fact, owing to the
HON. GEORGE S. NIXON
Who's Who in Nevada.
few opportunities for material advancement at Belleville,
he probably "seized it eagerly" — a position in the First
National Bank at Reno, the institution that is now the
Washoe County Bank. Three years later Mr. Nixon
went to Winnemucca, where he organized the First Na-
tional Bank of Winnemucca. He served as cashier of the
bank for fifteen years, then became its president.
Senator Nixon's first experience in law-making bodies
came in 1891, when he was elected to the Legislature, and
his rise in the councils of the Republican party was even
more rapid than in the business world. This reached the
pinnacle when he was chosen to represent Nevada in the
United States Senate.
When a boy his dream was that some day he might
become the owner of a bank. Since that time he has made
a whole chain of banks, become United States Senator,
entered the lists of the mining men of Nevada in the
foremost rank and made for himself a name which is
known at home and abroad. His connection with the
great Goldfield Consolidated, as its president, is well
known, for the history of most of the greatest mines of
Goldfield, has been written in many languages and read
in many climes.
There is not a camp in Nevada in which the Senator has
no interests. He built the Nixon Block in Goldfield at a
time when few men would have had the courage to put
a large sum of money into such an enterprise. His faith
in the camp has been repaid many fold. Senator Nixon
is a genial man with the faculty of seeing the humorous
side of things, and is the life of any company he honors ;
energetic, ambitious and optimistic, he succeeds in impart-
ing optimism to others — the kind of optimism that is mak-
ing Southern Nevada.
Who's Who in Nevada.
HON. GEORGE A. BARTLETT
HE Congressman from Nevada is a Ne-
vadan every inch. When Nevada cast
off her territorial raiment and assumed
the dignity of . statehood it was decreed
that one man should represent her in
the Halls of Congress. To find the
man better fitted to uphold her honor than George A.
Bartlett would be difficult.
Without his knowledge or consent, George Bartlett was
born in San Francisco. But a few weeks afterward, he
was taken to Eureka, Nevada, in those days a hustlinp;
mining camp. Here his parents had lived for several years
before his birth. When he was old enough to reason —
those who ought to know, say that at a remarkably young
age — he made up his mind that Nevada is the best place
in the world and that opinion has not changed with ad-
vance in years. To live in Nevada ; to wander forth a
little ; to gain the viewpoint of the world, and to return to
Nevada to die is all he asks.
The George Bartlett of today, whom all his friends
know as just George, is a man of power — a genius with
a little more sanity than has the average genius. His
name is known from one end of the state to the other,
and in Washington his colleagues are not allowed to for-
get Nevada.
As an orator he is without a peer in the state. His
small body seems charged with dynamic energy, and
with the velocity of whirlwind, he sweeps obstacles from
his path. A pair of blue eyes, merry and keen, peer out
from the base of an expansive forehead. Nature has neg-
lected to provide an overabundance of hair for the top of
GEORGE A. BARTLETT
Who's Who in Nevada.
the Congressman's head, and he, determined to have so
much hair in spite of everything, allows it to cover his
neck in the back.
In the matter of dress he scorns all fashions but his
own self-adopted and never-changing ones. He says he
dresses for comfort, and his broad-brimmed sombrero,
soft collar, and long black string tie, he carries with him
even to the Capital.
In his profession, as the senior member of the law
firm of Bartlett & Thatcher, with offices in the Butler
Building in Tonopah, he occupies a prominent place in
the first rank.
Mr. Bartlett's early recollections are all centered around
Eureka, Nevada, where he spent his boyhood days. He
went to Georgetown College, and after leaving his alma
mater, returned to his childhood home, and began prac-
ticing his profession. From the beginning he was suc-
cessful, and rapidly he conquered the small world, which
that mining camp represents. Politics interested him
early in life, and his first public office was that of district
attorney.
In Tonopah he became legal representative for
Jim Butler in 1901, and since that time has become at-
torney for the Shoshone Consolidated, the Pittsburg Sil-
ver Peak Mining Company, the interests of Malcolm
Macdonald and several other capitalists, and 'is vice-
president of the First National Bank of Tonopah.
Mr. Bartlett was one of the first to secure a lease on
the famous Jumbo in Goldfield, and since then has ac-
quired interests in Goldfield, Bullfrog, Manhattan, and
other camps in Southern Nevada. He has recently com-
pleted a home in Tonopah which is the largest and most
beautiful residence in the southern part of the State.
Who's Who in Nevada.
GOVERNOR JOHN SPARKS
IS EXCELLENCY, the Governor, the
Honorable John Sparks, is a South-
erner; that is, all of him that is not a
Nevadan. Governor Sparks, who pre-
sides over the destinies of this great
state, as campaign orators are wont to
say, was born in Mississippi, August 30, 1843. Fourteen
years later, in 1857, h*5 family went to Texas and with
them went the future governor. The Governor's parents
were well known in the big state of Texas. His father
was a pioneer stock raiser and members of his family
took part in the skirmishes against hostile Indians. This
gave young John Sparks an advantageous equipment of
experience, which he was destined to need in his later life.
At the age of fourteen years he began working for him-
self. In 1868 he came to Nevada and became interested
in the cattle business. He bought several ranches and at
one time owned thousands of head of cattle. He has also
extensive interests in mining in various parts of the state.
Governor Sparks is a Democrat, and has been active in
the party ever since his boyhood. He was elected Governor
of Nevada first in 1902 by a large majority and was re-
elected at the last state election. The Governor is and
has been for years a prominent factor in the development.
of agriculture and stock raising.
Governor Sparks is a quiet, kindly man, with a heart
overflowing with good cheer toward his fellow men. He
has the southern, or perhaps better still, the western, idea
of hospitality and this, with his many other splendid char-
acteristics, has endeared him to the people of the state.
One of his possessions of which he is the most proud is a
GOVERNOR JOHN SPARKS
Who's Who in Nevada.
big ranch along the railroad between Carson and Reno,
''The Alamo" the ranch is called, and there is probably
no more beautiful place in the State. It is situated on
the old Virginia City Turnpike, and takes its names from
a fine grove of cottonwood trees standing near the home.
As a country place there is nothing in the State to com-
pare with it. The Governor has developed on land that
was practically barren, everything that tends toward the
beautiful. He has a herd of elk and buffalo, and he has
done more than any other man in the West to keep this
latter animal from becoming extinct. The Governor be-
lieves that today Nevada is the best live-stock state in the
Union, and says that the industry is one which will con-
tinue to grow.
As a breeder of fancy stock, he is known all over the
West, and even farther afield. He sent the first Here-
fords ever shipped to Honolulu into the islands, and his
stock has even gone abroad, while there is hardly a cor-
ner in America where stock-raising exists, that the Alamo
cows have not been sent.
Who's Who in Nevada.
LIEUT. GOV. D. S. DICKERSON
EVADA's Lieutenant Governor, D. S.
Dickerson, is not a mere politician, as
are many office-holders, but a man who
has accomplishments to his credit in
other lines. He is a prominent miner
, . and knows more than a little of the
state's great mineral wealth. Mr. Dickerson was not born
in Nevada, but he did the best he could and allowed Cali-
fornia to claim the honor of being his native state. He
was born in Shasta County, January 25, 1872, the son of
one of California's pioneer mining men.
The Lieutenant Governor has mined in California,
Idaho and Montana, as well as in Nevada. Incidentally,
being a good Democrat and believing in advancing the in-
terests of his party, he has been prominently identified
with politics. Until coming to Nevada he had not held
office, being content to remain a humble worker in the
ranks. Mr. Dickerson came to Nevada in 1899 and en-
gaged in mining in White Pine County. He was elected
County Clerk in 1902 ; at the next election he was chosen
County Recorder, and at the last state election he became
Lieutenant Governor.
Lieutenant Governor Dickerson is a newspaper man of
considerable experience. For two years he owned and
edited the White Pine News at Ely. He sold that publi-
cation and now owns the Ely Mining Expositor, which
he founded. He has mining property in other parts of
the state, but is especially interested in Ely.
The Lieutenant Governor is a young man, quiet and re-
served. He does not have a great deal to say, as a rule,
but when he speaks he says something.
LIEUT. GOV. D. S. DICKERSON
Who's Who in Nevada
EX-GOVERNOR R. K. COLCORD
HERE lives a man in Nevada who was
elected Governor on the Republican
ticket. This may seem astonishing in
these days, but it is true nevertheless.
R. K. Colcord, assayer in charge of the
United States Mint at Carson City, has
the honor. In the days before the fusion of the silver
men and the Democrats the Republicans were in control,
and it was during that time that Colcord was elected.
Former Governor Colcord has been a prominent figure
in this western country. He was born in Maine, April 25,
1837. He studied engineering in his youth and went to
California in 1856 to engage in placer mining and mill
and bridge building. He came to Nevada in 1863 and lo-
cated on the Comstock in Virginia during the heighth of
the gold excitement. He remained there for eight years
building some of the big mills. He was manager of the
mines and mills at Bodie, just across the line in Califor-
nia, for seven years and held a similar position for five
years in Aurora, the sister town on the Nevada side of
the state line.
Governor Colcord has been a leader in the Republican
party in the state for years. He was elected Governor in
1891 and served until 1895, when he went back to his
mining work. He was appointed superintendent of the
mint in 1898 by President McKinley. The mint is now
conducted as a government assay office.
"I am a miner," says the former Governor, "and I tell
you it is the most satisfactory and cheerful calling in the
world. I will not stop as long as I have a cent. Legiti-
mate? Why, it is just as legitimate as raising wheat."
EX-GOVERNOR R. K. COLCORD
Who's Who in Nevada.
EX-GOVERNOR JEWETT ADAMS
MAN who has had a prominent part in
the building of the West is former
Governor of Nevada, Jewett W. Adams.
He has seen enacted many of the his-
tory-making incidents of the last half
century. When he was sixteen years of
age he finished his course in the district school of Ver-
mont, in which state he was born, and started for Califor-
nia by way of Panama. In 1856 and 1857 he acted as
clerk for General John C. Fremont in Mariposa County,
Cal. After coming to Nevada Mr. Adams became active
in politics. He was elected Governor on the Democratic
ticket in 1872, and served four years. He held office dur-
ing stirring times, among the events of his term being the
gold excitement at Gold Hill.
Retiring to private life, Governor Adams engaged act-
ively in business. For years he has been a prominent
stockman and has at all times been ready with advice and
deeds for the upbuilding of the state. He makes his
home at Carson City, where he is recouping his fortune
by conducting a gypsum quarry and mill at Mound House,
a few miles from Carson. The product of his mill and
quarry is much in demand and large quantities are being
shipped to San Francisco to be used in rebuilding that
city.
Former Governor Adams' looks belie his seventy-two
years. His white hair, courtly manner and slight, straight
figure are well known to all residents of the sagebrush
state.
EX-GOVERNOR JEWETT ADAMS
TONOPAH
u
TONOPAH
N illimitable sand waste, broken by
cruel, jagged hills jutting from a bar-
ren plain, known to government geog-
raphers as the Great Southern Nevada
Desert, and shunned by every living
thing except an occasional lizard.
This much and no more was known of the world'?
greatest gold-fields ten years ago.
Another picture, Tonopah.
Gone the sand waste ,gone the horror, and in its place
a metropolitan, cosmopolitan community. The Southern
Nevada Desert once called great because of its vastness,
is now great indeed — great because it is daily increasing
the wealth of the world ; great because at a single bound
it has accomplished what other desert countries have not
done in centuries, but greatest of all because it stands as a
monument to the combined achievement of men's brains,
men's courage, men's brawn, and men's money.
On May 19, 1900, Tonopah came into being. It was
upon that day that Jim Butler broke the samples from
the Mizpah Ledge which were soon to cause the eyes of
the mining world to be focused upon Southern Nevada.
The story of that discovery has been told elsewhere.
All have heard of Jim Butler's search for a man who
would assay his samples, of the days of hard labor three
men endured before they knew the real worth of the new
field, of the discouragement which met them on every
hand and later of the mad rush for the new diggings.
It was from Belmont that Jim Butler traveled on his
way to Klondyke when he located the Tonopah ground
and it was to Belmont that he returned to have his sam-
Who's Who in Nevada.
pies assayed, thus it was that the first men to hear of
the new strike were the Belmont men. Most of them
had been ranching, some had been keeping stores and
others had been prospecting and mining in a small way
for many years. All went to Tonopah. The camp was
first a tent, then a house, and later a city of business
blocks and graded streets, electric lights and telephones.
Some enterprising citizen decided one day that it would
be a good thing for Tonopah to become the county seat,
and the miners proceeded to move it. If the people of
Belmont objected, it made no difference for there were
not more than a handful of them left to object, and
Tonopah went on the principal of "what I want I take."
The county seat was moved without any "by-your-leave"
or "may I ?"
The Belmont men were not long left in sole possession
of the new land of wealth for the news traveled fast and
people in all the remote camps of the country heard about
it. In the cities they heard too, but in the cities people are
sometimes skeptical and the wise ones assumed a "you-
have-to-show-us" attitude. Some of them awoke be-
fore it was too late, and Tonopah became the center of
a cosmopolitan population, composed of men and women
with but a single aim.
Oddie Mountain, which had been a barren hill with not
a stir of life, became the busiest place in the West. Men
with leases from the original locaters, dug into the hill,
cut it and cross-cut it, until it looked like a bee hive. They
worked early and late, and reaped a golden harvest for
themselves and for the owners of the ground.
The name of Mizpah became known the world over,
and soon Belmont, Tonopah Extension, Montana-Tono-
pah, Midway, Jim Butler, and many others look their
places alongside this great bonanza, each of them occu-
X
Who's Who in Nevada.
pying a place of more or less importance. Though loca-
tions have been made and mines have been developed
since the day of the discovery of the Mizpah, Tonopah
has never produced anything greater than this first prop-
erty. If it is not the greatest silver-gold mine in the
world today, it will give any other mine a close run for
honors. From the beginning the mines of Tonopah have
paid their owners. The first wagon-load of ore shipped
out of the district brought the money which made further
development of the mines possible, and since that time
the production receipts have been enormous. In cash
dividends Tonopah paid during the year 1906, $2,200,000
and 121,375 tons of ore were shipped. There is enough
ore blocked out in the mines today to make them divi-
dend-payers for many years, even if there is never another
pound of gold or silver-bearing rock uncovered.
Men have thought enough of her future to erect fine
business blocks and some of the most expensive homes in
the State are located there. She has in the Tonopah
Bonanza an up-to-date morning newspaper that would
be a credit to any city and in the afternoon, the Tonopah
Sun comes forth to cast its rays into the Tonopah homes,
while three weeklies help to spread the greatness of
Tonopah abroad.
The camp is the center of an ever-growing mining dis-
trict and supplies Blair and its famous Silver Peak mine,
which many believe the greatest in the state ; Manhattan,
Liberty, and many other camps of importance.
Tonopalrs past has been a rosy one, but not one whit
less bright is the outlook upon the future which stretches
before her. In spite of her wonderful stirdes she is even
now only an infant and none can set limits which will
bind her advancement.
Who's Who in Nevada.
JIM BUTLER
IM BUTLER is the father of Tonopah,
solely, only, and pre-eminently. While
the parentage of various other camps is
a mooted question and the birth of most
of them is shrouded in mystery, Tono-
pah is in a class by itself. It's all
hats off to Jim Butler. It takes curiosity to make mines.
If Little Old Jim Butler, as he is affectionately called,
had not had curiosity there might not have been any To-
nopah today. When Thomas Jefferson Bell, one of the
others of the grand old pioneers of Nevada, discovered
Klondyke, Jim Butler heard of the find and started on a
trip to the new district. It was on the way that he camped
over night and awoke the next morning to find Tonopah.
Curiosity, or force of habit, made him break a few bits of
rock from some of the outcroppings, and curiosity led him
to find what was in it. This was on May 19, 1900, and the
samples were taken off what is now the Buckboard Mine
on the Mizpah lode.
With these samples Jim Butler concluded his trip to
Klondyke. Assayers who saw the rock there thought lit-
tle of it and threw the samples aside as not worth testing.
The failure to get his rock assayed seemed to act as a
stimulus to Jim Butler, and on the return trip he took
more samples, which were later sent to the assayers by
T. L. Oddie. In August of that year Mr. Butler and his
wife left for the new diggings and on the twenty-sixth of
that month made the locations covering the great Mizpah
ledge. Their location monuments were made of ore taken
from> the ledge, for there were no stakes within many
miles. Mrs. Butler named the camp Tonopah. With
JIM BUTLER
Who's Who in Nevada
each new assay the locators grew more and more enthusi-
astic for the gold and silver values became higher. It was
not long until the barren desert grew to be a hustling min-
ing camp. From every section of the country came for-
tune-hunters, all seeking the new El Dorado. And To-
nopah was made.
As long as there is a Nevada, as long as the world re-
members the benefits that have come from her wondrous
treasure vaults, so long will the name of Jim Butler be
known and honored. And beside it must be placed in
every record of the growth of this great southern empire
the name of Mrs. Belle Butler, his wife. Of all Nevada
women she is the most honored. Kind-hearted, noble-
spirited and courageous she went through all the hard-
ships of the early days without a word of complaint.
A word about Jim Butler. He is a big-hearted, broad-
gauge, thoroughly Western type. Of strong character,
of firm mental fibre, he combines certain carelessnesses
with strong intellectuality and a really philosophical bent
of mind. His word poeple are willing to take for
his bond, and he believes that the word of mouth is as
binding and solemn as is any written contract. He was
born in 1855 in El Dorado County, California, and his
boyhood days were passed among the scenes of the won-
derful placer diggings. He drifted to Nevada in the days
when the famous Comstock was still astonishing the
world, and mined in Austin, Pioche, White Pine, and vari-
ous other districts. Thirty years of hard knocks were his
before fortune laid in his path the Mizpah Ledge on that
memorable May morning. Today he lives on a beautiful
ranch in Bishop, and every few days his big automobile
comes chugging into Tonopah, bringing the father for
another glimpse of the now full-grown child.
Who's
Who in Nevada
w
T. L. ODDIE
RITE the name of Jimi Butler and you
tell the beginning of the history of To-
nopah; write the name of T. L. Oddie
and you give the world a mining camp,
full grown and a winner.
In the sleepy little town of Belmont,
which was at that time almost all of Southern Nevada,
there was a young attorney endowed with plenty of
brains but little coin of the realm. In this latter particu-
lar he resembled his fellow townsmen, for as some hu-
morist writes, there was not more than $26 in all Nye
County. Mr. Oddie was assistant district attorney, su-
perintendent of schools, and various other things benefi-
cial to the people of Belmont, but not particularly remu-
nerative to T. L. Oddie. To quote the same humorist, his
salary was $50 a month, payable in scrip in seven years.
It was not then Oddie the miner, or Oddie the state sen-
ator that people heard of, but just Oddie the assistant dis-
trict attorney, or Oddie, "the fellow that looked after the
school kids." But young Oddie was not the sort of a man
to be content long with a salary of $50 a month payable
in seven years, and when Jim Butler returned from that
now famous trip to Klondyke with some rock that looked
good, Mr. Oddie listened to his appeal and arranged to
have the assay made. It was the beginning of a new life
for Oddie. This was in the summer of 1900. By of-
fering an assayer in Austin an interest in the property
Jim Butler had discovered, and securing his report, Mr.
Oddie made possible the Tonopah of today. With Jim
Butler and W. Brougher, Mr. Oddie went to the Mizpah
ground located by Butler, and there the three men, work-
Who's Who in Nevada
ing by turns, sank a shaft fifteen feet. From1 there they
hauled the ore, two wagonloacls in all, to Belmont, and
then a hundred miles farther to the nearest railroad at
Austin. The $600, which was the net result of this ship-
ment, was the first money to come from the now famous
Mizpah Ledge. The story of Tonopah, with its leasers
who gophered Oddie Mountain and made a fortune for
its locators and for themselves, tells the rest. Mr.
Oddie opened the Tonopah Mining Company's ground,
as well as the Belmont and Jim Butler, and he made them
all pay. He acquired heavy interests in the Midway Min-
ing Company, the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad, and was
the first president of the Nye & Ormsby County Bank.
He was one of the first on the ground after the discovery
of Goldfield, and put much money into that camp and
Bullfrog, which has helped largely in the development
of both. He has. always been interested in securing pub-
lic utilities and owns extensive water rights. One of his
pet projects is a gigantic plan to bring an abundance of
water into Goldfield and Tonopah, which should solve
for all time the water problem in the two camps.
Mr. Oddie was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., October 24,
1870. He was educated in Orange, N. J., and later gradu-
ated from the night school of New York University, New
York City, where he was admitted to the bar. In 1898
the management of the Anson Phelps Stokes estate in-
duced Mr. Oddie to come to Nevada, where the estate had
large interests. Since that time he has never left the
state except for) brief visits. Few men have so many
friends. He is a quiet, gentle-mannered man, handsome,
trusts others implicitly, dislikes to say "no" to any propo-
sition that has merit, and there are innumerable young
men in Nevada today who owe their start in life to T. L.
Oddie.
tow:
Who's Who in Nevada
MALCOLM MACDONALD
F MALCOLM MACDONALD had
done nothing in his life but install the
telephone and telegraph system through-
out Southern Nevada, bringing even the
remotest camps and mines into instant
communication with the outside world,
he would not have lived in vain, and the state would rise
up and call him blessed.
At a time when public corporations with unlimited
means were unwilling to spend their money in utilities for
the development of that part of the desert country, it was
Malcolm Macdonald who rose to the occasion and in the
face of almost insurmountable obstacles built a system ot
lines that was a god-send to the people of the community.
Actuated by a desire to give the outlying camps a service
that would make it possible for them to exist, he secured
the necessary capital for telephone and telegraph systems,
projected and built automobile roads ; and instead of days
and weeks, minutes and hours separated the integral parts
of the greatest mining country the world has ever known.
Malcolm Macdonald is the typical man of affairs, the
daring organizer and investor, just the sort of man that
is necessary to the welfare of a state such as Nevada. The
mining district is his home. His playgrounds in early life
were the shafts of the Comstock, where his father was a
leader during the palmy days of the great gold diggings.
He went to school in California and then betook himself
to Montana, where he made a phenomenal record in min-
ing engineering. He became associated with Joseph
Harper, one of the noted mining and construction experts
in the West. Macdonald had supervision of the build-
K
Who's Who in Nevada
ing of the Big Horn dam system, from which Butte was
supplied with water and power. The firm had charge of
other great works in Montana before Mr. Macdonald de-
cided to return to Nevada, his native state, being suc-
ceeded in the partnership with Colonel Harper by his
brother, Irving Macdonald.
His career in Nevada has been one of constant activity.
One of his first tasks was the building of the telephone and
telegraph systems and the construction of automobile
roads. He is consulting engineer of the Tonopah Exten-
sion Mining Company, in which Charles M. Schwab is
one of the heaviest investors, and is president of the
Southern Nevada Telephone and Telegraph Company.
His interests are numerous and varied. He took charge
of the Montgomery-Shoshone Consolidated Mine and de-
veloped its millions. He is the associate of many wealthy
men, and owns properties that promise immense riches.
Throughout Southern Nevada his hand has been felt,
always building up, never destroying.
He is president of the First National Bank of Goldfield,
and this institution is one of his pet undertakings. When-
ever there is word of a new strike or new discovery in
any part of the state, Malcolm Macdonald and his men
are among the first on the spot. Thus he has acquired
interests in every quarter. One of the camps in which
he is concentrating a large part of his energy at present
is Rosebud, which he believes shows promise of being
among those which will some day be famous in the his-
tory of Nevada's gold regions.
It is said of Malcolm Macdonald that he is the embodi-
ment of the now somewhat trite motto, "Don't knock but
boost." He has never been known to speak ill of any
man. If his opinions are contrary to those of another, he
MALCOLM MACDONALD
Who's Who in Nevada
states the fact and drops the subject. He is straight-
forward and open in his manner and in his dealing with
his fellow men. No man can attain such prominence as
his and be free from the attacks of those who seek to de-
tract from his achievements. But he does not retaliate.
If he says nothing good he says nothing at all. He is
one of the busiest men in the state and his offices are the
center from which radiates much of the business impetus
of the district. Surrounded by associates and employes,
his time is fully occupied, but he never refuses an audi-
ence to any one who may seek it. The door of his office
swings open to admit rich and poor alike and to all he
is the kindly, courteous man whom Nevada has come to
associate with what is most progressive in her develop-
ment.
Who's Who in Nevada
DONALD B. GILLIES
HE mining engineers have been the
mine makers of Nevada. Upon the
shoulders of a few has rested the actual
responsibility of making dividend pay-
ers out of prospects. Since the begin-
ning of the gold excitement in Tonopab.
which means the beginning of Southern Nevada, the vari-
ous mining fields of the world have been contributing their
best in brains and skill to this new El Dorado. Montana
has sent many of those most active in her mineral zone
and there is none in Nevada today who is better known
than Donald B. Gillies.
He came to Nevada a young man, with a brief but
brilliant record behind him, and abundance of high hopes
for the future. Added to this he brought a sound min-
ing education, unlimited energy, a long business head
and a happy disposition. The prominence of his position
today in the state's activities proves how well this stock
in trade has served him. Few men have met with so much
success.
When the Montana-Tonopah Mining Company was
casting about for a man to take charge of its property and
make it the mine it promised and has since proved to be,
they sent for Don Gillies and made him an offer flatter-
ing enough to turn the head of a young man less wise.
As general manager of this property he paid the first
dividend to the stockholders a year from the time he first
took the reins in his hands. He resigned this position
to accept a similar one with the Tonopah-Extension Min-
ing Company, and later became its president. His
handling of the Montana-Tonopah Mine first attracted the
Who's Who in Nevada
attention of Charles M. Schwab to him and the impres-
sion Mr. Schwab received of him then was strengthened
before he had long been in charge of the Tonopah Ex-
tension. Today he has charge of all Mr. Schwab's inter-
ests in Nevada, which have been growing more extensive
all the time.
The purchase of the Montgomery-Shoshone in the Bull-
frog District was made upon his recommendation, as was
also the purchase of the Polaris and Crystal groups,
which later formed the holdings of the Shoshone Con-
solidated Mines Company. He was instrumental in ef-
fecting the consolidation of several of the best properties
in Greenwater, and this camp, he believes, will some day
be one of the great copper producers of the world. Cop-
per mining in any country involves the expenditure of
much money, and it will be necessary to do a large amount
of work in Greenwater to determine the actual status of
the district. The consolidation includes the Greenwater
and Death Valley, the Furnace Creek and the United
Greenwater companies, the choicest in the district. There
is no camp in Nevada in which Mr. Gillies is not inter-
ested, and his personal holdings in most of them are very
large. It is not as the mining engineer, but as the oper-
ator that he is most heard of today.
His interests keep him always on the wing and he is
here one day and away the next, with his watchful eye
in every quarter where he or the men who are his asso-
ciates, have capital invested.
Personally he is a favorite among his acquaintances. His
boyhood days were spent in Ontario, Canada, where he
first saw the light in 1872. His father and his grand-
father had been miners before him, and it was natural
that he should have a desire to follow in their footsteps.
DONALD B. GILLIES
Who's Who in Nevada
He entered the Michigan College of Mines and graduated
there with the degrees of B. S. and E. M. His first actual
field experience was in the employment of the Calumet
and Hecla Copper Company in Northern Michigan, and
he later became the superintendent of all the mining
properties of W. A. Clark in Butte, Montana. Many of
the leading capitalists of the east have inyested money in
Nevada upon his advice, and his opinion is being contin-
ually sought.
V»n,
M
Who's Who in Nevada
CHARLES M. SCHWAB
OLD begets gold. It takes money to
make mines. Without the vast amount
of capital which has been brought into
Southern Nevada the world's greatest
proved mining field might today be but
a prospect.
Every captain of industry who has invested money in
mining knows that for every winning card there must be
many blanks. The barren ground must be proved as
well as the mine and every dollar that is actually put into
the ground, whether it strikes another dollar or proves
that there is no dollar there to strike, serves its purpose in
developing the country.
The West has drawn miuch of her development capital
from a few financiers of the East who recognized her won-
derful possibilities and were ready to send gold hunting
for more gold.
Charles M. Schwab, the steel magnate, has been in the
first rank of those who have opened their coffers and
poured their treasure into the mining regions of Southern
Nevada. Long before the railroad penetrated the remote
parts of the state, Mr. Schwab covered the sagebrush to
see with his own eyes the prospects it was offering him.
Upon the advice of experienced mining .men whom he
has kept in the field since the early days of Tonopah, he
has invested money in nearly every camp in the state. He
was first attracted to Tonopah, where he purchased from
Tom Lockhart and A. D. Myers the controlling inter-
est in Tonopah Extension. The most noted of all his
purchases has been that of the Montgomery-Shoshone
and other properties which go to make up the holdings
of the famous Shoshone Consolidated. He later acquired
Who's Who in Nevada
other properties in the Bullfrog District, which make him
by far the largest owner in a district which promises to
be a producer long after some of the more sensational
camps have ceased to exist. Mr. Schwab is chief among
the owners of the most promising properties in Green water
and he is interested in various other projects in the state,
including townsite interests and a plan to erect a smelter.
A word about Charles M. Schwab, the man. There
are few men in the public eye today whose lives are so full
of interest as that of this steel magnate. He was bom in
Williamsburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania, February 18,
1862, and was educated by the Franciscan brothers at
Loretti. He began his business career as a grocer's boy.
and his first work in connection with the steel industry,
of which he was destined to become the head, was in the
engineering department of the Edgar Thompson Steel
Company, where he drove stakes for $1.00 a day. The
story of his rapid rise from that time forward has stirred
many a boy to greater efforts. Suffice it to say that in
1897 he was made president of the Carnegie Steel Works
and became the highest salaried man in the world.
In all his work Mr. Schwab has carried out the con-
solidation idea. He believes that concentration saves cost
in production and that the salvation of the working man
and the capitalist lies in the trust.
In all his mining ventures in Nevada he has carried out
this same plan, as is shown in the consolidation of so many
properties in the Bullfrog District, and also in the Green-
water consolidation.
His Nevada associates know Charles Schwab and ad-
mire him for a man of big brain, keen judgment, splendid
executive ability, affable, of sympathetic nature and great
generosity. Of his wealth he gives abundantly as many
public institutions and countless individuals could testify.
CHARLES M. SCHWAB
Who's Who in Nevada
4*
JOHN SALSBERRY
HE copper king of the new Nevada min-
ing country is John Salsberry, and Ube-
hebe, his mineral empire, will astonish
the world with its outpourings of
wealth. They say of Ubehebe, as Queen
Sheba said of old, "The half was not
told me." The man who goes into the district is prom-
ised much, he realizes more. In this district John Sals-
berry is the leader and the ruling spirit and the time is
coming when the coffers of himself and his associates
will be overflowing with the proceeds from kindly Mother
Earth.
John Salsberry is probably as well known as any miner
in Nevada. He came to Tonopah in May, 1901, from
Tuolumne County, California, where he was mining on
the mother lode. He secured an interest in the Belmont,
one of Tonopah's great properties, and also has had ex-
tensive holdings on ground adjoining the Montana-Tono
pah. He was one of the heavy investors and staunch sup-
porters of the Bullfrog District, assisting in the incor-
poration of valuable properties. He has operated widely
throughout the southern part of the State, and his work
has been carried on in such a business-like, systematic
way that it has inspired general confidence, his efforts
being followed closely by a large contingent. His faith
in Ubehebe has served to stimulate great interest in that
camp. Impartial investigators who have visited this great
copper district declare its possibilities are almost unlim-
ited.
The land lies in such a way that the ore can be taken
out with but little difficulty. The mountains are high and
TV< -<','.> -'
Who's Who in Nevada
the descent to the valley is sharp. The contact is dis-
tinct and the ledges are the true copper rock. They are
there in plain view, and the more one looks, the more he
is convinced. By the outcroppings the ledges may be
traced practically 2,000 feet along the side of the moun-
tain.
Previous to the discovery of Ubehebe, Mr. Salsberry
had been deeply interested in other copper properties. He
was one of the first men with money to enter the Green-
water District. His agents had secured many claims there
and later Mr. Salsberry himself made a visit to the valley.
He was prominent in the affairs of the Death Valley Cop-
per Mining Company and was an important factor in the
organization and exploitation of the company which
Charles M. Schwab and his associates have backed with
their millions.
His judgment appears to be almost infallible. He has
co-operated with many of the other prominent men of
Nevada in the development of mining property and his
career in the state is a record of successful operations.
In almost every camp of Nevada Mr. Salsberry has
lumber yards, and in the management of these properties
he has been so successful that they have added materially
to his fortune. He is generous, a good booster for the
state, is public-spirited and is always ready to lend a hand
or advance money for the betterment of the community.
He is essentially a self-made man. He has been a miner
for years and seems to have been one of those destined by
the Goddess of Chance to find a fortune in the ground.
He is known throughout the country. His faith in the
state is the faith of the man who knows. He frequently
makes trips to the East, and when he speaks, eastern cap-
ital is ready to listen and be convinced. John Salsberry
is big, handsome and Western.
Who's Who in Nevada
m
JUDGE J. P. O'BRIEN
UDGE J. P. O'BRIEN missed the San
Francisco earthquake six weeks, coming
to Tonopah just that length of time be-
fore the cataclysmic disturbance in the
good old city by the Golden Gate. The
Judge did not leave San Francisco be-
cause he knew the earthquake was due to arrive, but be-
cause he recognized in Nevada a place worthy of a man's
best efforts. He was born in San Francisco, attended the
public schools and read law under the now famous at-
torney, D. M. Delmas. Mr. O'Brien formed a partner-
ship with E. L. Campbell, which continued several years.
He acquired a peculiar fascination for mining law. In
1896 he went to Tuolumne County, where he built up an
extensive practice, largely cases of mining law. Judge
O'Brien returned to San Francisco in 1903, and almost
immediately he became the legal representative of some of
the biggest mining companies and other interests in the
State.
Coming to Tonopah, Mr. O'Brien at once entered act-
ively upon the practice of his profession, devoting his time
principally to the law pertaining to mining, water rights
and corporation business generally.
May 6, 1907, he was appointed District Judge by Gov-
ernor Sparks, to fill the position created by the last legis-
lature, when a new district was formed. Although the
salary is the highest ever paid to any judge in the state,
Mr. O'Brien refused the appointment three times, pre-
ferring to look after the extensive interests which he rep-
resented, but was persuaded to accept. He is a Democrat,
strong in the councils of the party, and on the bench is ad-
mitted to have few equals as an interpreter of the laws.
Who's Who in Nevada
HUGH H. BROWN
ITHOUT learned expounders of min-
ing and corporation laws the actual
business of this Nevada wonder-land
would be seriously retarded. Such an
exponent of legal lore is Hugh H.
Brown, member of the widely known
firm of Campbell, Metson & Brown of San Francisco
and Nevada.
The firm established offices in Tonopah in the days of
the camp's infancy and has had no small part in up-
building the community, Mr. Brown being the resident
member.
Graduating from Stanford in the class of '96, Mr.
Brown was admitted to the California bar in the same
year. He received his first training in mining law under
the late Patrick Reddy. When the firm decided to open
offices in Nevada, Mr. Brown was sent to the sagebrush
and has remained ever since. He represents some of the
biggest mining enterprises in the state, among them be-
ing many owned by the Brock interests. The interests of
the firm have not been confined to Tonopah, for they have
branch offices in nearly every camp in Southern Nevada.
Among the many corporations that Mr. Brown guides
legally aright are: Tonopah Mining Company, the
Jim Butler Tonopah Mining Company, the Tonopah &
Goldfield Railroad, the Bullfrog & Goldfield Railroad,
the Desert Power & Mill Company, the Tonopah United
Water Company, and the Nevada Copper Company.
Mr. Brown is the sagebrush Beau Brummel, and —
whisper it lest he hear you — probably the best dressed
man in Nevada.
HUGH H. BROWN
N
Who's Who in Nevada
L. L. MUSHETT
NLY in Nevada, where the poor man of
today is the rich man of tomorrow,
could a man with a hundred dollars'
worth of mining stock as his sole claim
to wealth at the beginning of one year,
write his name for $175,000 before that
•/• tiQI year was nine months old.
Yet that was just what L. L. Mushett, erstwhile tele-
graph operator and now prominent mine operator, did.
Mr. Mushett was born in California in November, 1874,
and at the age of eighteen entered the employment of the
Southern Pacific as a telegrapher. When the railroad
was built into Tonopah he went to the camp to be chief
dispatcher for the system and served in this position for
two years, when he was made postmaster. This office
he resigned to engage in the mining business and he
started in with practically no capital. He organized the
firm of Mushett & Lawson, and became associated in
business with W. E. Lawson. Fortune smiled upon him.
He bought stocks and he bought the right ones. When
the big merger at Goldfield took place he held 20,000
shares of Consolidated. Today he has interests in every
camp in the state. He is president of the J. P. Fitting
Company and with this company has floated many suc-
cessful mining promotions. Among others he and his as-
sociates secured the McAfee Copper property in Inyo
County, sold to Charles M. Schwab, and now known as
the Loretto Copper Company ; the Mears & Sanger cop-
per properties in Ubehebe sold to John Salsberry and his
eastern associates ; and several others from which great
wealth is expected.
L. L. MUSHETT
Cx.
Who's Who in Nevada
KEY PITTMAN
UBLIC spirited, when applied as a term
descriptive of a man's character, is often
misused, but not so in the case of Key
Pittman, who stands high among men
of Nevada and whose work as a mining
attorney has brought him more than
local fame. He is a Southern gentleman, and proud of it.
Mississippi was his birthplace, his education being ob-
tained in that state and at the Southwestern University,
Clarksville, Tenn. He went to Seattle and was prominent
in legal circles in that city. In 1897 he went to Dawson
and then to Nome, practicing with much success. Then
he came to Tonopah and soon became identified with some
of the biggest mining companies in the State. He rep-
resents in a legal way a long list of corporations, some of
the most important being the Tonopah Extension, Bull-
frog Mining Company, United Greenwater Copper,
Nevada Smelting and Mines corporation ; he is assistant
counsel of the Montgomery-Shoshone Consolidated, and
others equally important. He is attorney for the Schwab
interests, State Bank and Trust Company, Southern
Nevada Telephones and Telegraph Company and is a
director in the big Greenwater properties acquired by
John Brock and associates. His value to the public
as a citizen is seen in his appointment by the Nevada
Supreme Court as delegate to the Universal congress of
lawyers and jurists in St. Louis in 1904; appointment by
the Governor as delegate to the National Irrigation Con-
gress in Portland, 1905 ; appointment as colonel on the
Governor's staff, 1907, and his selection as delegate to
the National Irrigation Congress in Sacramento,
A true son of Dixie-land, a true citizen of Nevada.
Who's Who in Nevada
ZEB KENDALL
HEN there was but one frame dwelling
in Tonopah, and a score of men and one
woman in camp, Zeb Kendall, a miner
who had been working in Delamar, ar-
rived with a small pack and not much
of anything else in the world but a
giant physique and a desire for gold. The giant was born
in Kansas in 1875, and lived most of the early part of his
life on his father's ranch, where he learned to fear noth-
ing and to like hard work. He always had a desire to
mine and in 1896 went to Delamar, where he gained his
practical experience under ground.
He arrived in Tonopah just in time to begin leasing
on Mount Oddie and in this way he made his first stake.
In 1902 he built the Palace Hotel, the first hostelry in
Tonopah. At the beginning of the excitement in Gold-
field, Zeb Kendall opened the January lease which was
the first in that camp. He and his associates struck it
lucky on this and hit the ledge when they had been work-
ing only two days. News of this strike when out to the
world and it was not long before leasing was the popular
form of mining in this section.
Various other ventures followed this one and they all
met with a more or less degree of success. Mr. Kendall
started the Zeb Kendall Brokerage Company and gained
the confidence of a large part of the investing- world.
A big hearted boyish fellow, with nothing but kind
words and kind thoughts for all, he has always had a host
of friends. He has known what it is to be rich one day
and poor the next and there are few men in the state
whose fortunes have gone through such meteoric changes.
Who's Who in Nevada
BERT L. SMITH
SANDWICHED career of banking and
mining and more banking and more
mining has brought the name of Bert L.
Smith into prominence in nearly every
mining camp of the west. Mr. Smith
was born in Leeds, Green County, New
York, but he realized before he had reached a very mature
age that the West was the place for him, and since 1882
he has been living in frontier towns. His first years in
the West were spent in Colorado mining and later he
was active in Wyoming and Old Mexico. In
1897 he went to Eureka, one of the early-day camps,
and there he purchased the Eureka County Bank, an in-
stitution of which he is still vice president. With his
brother, O. J. Smith, he began acquiring banking inter-
ests all over the state and his second move was the or-
ganization of the Southern Nevada Bank at Bullfrog,
which is now the First National Bank at Rhyolite. This
was in the first days of the excitement in the Bullfrog
district and that same year Mr. Smith moved his head-
quarters from Eureka to Tonopah. Early in the Man-
hattan boom he started the Bank of Manhattan and is its
president today.
The First National Bank, of Elko of which he is vice
president, was organized by him in 1893. He is president
of the Manhattan Pine Nut Mining ompany, the Yellow
Horse, vice-president of the Eureka Manhattan, and a
director in the Manhattan Sedan.
Bert L. Smith is a typical successful business man. He
is clear headed, alert, decisive and possessed of down-to-
date methods in mining and banking.
BERT L. SMITH
n
Who's Who in Nevada
IRVING MACDONALD
HE pathless wastes of Nevada's desert
lands have been made comparatively
safe, even for the tenderfoot, by the sur-
veyor and map-maker. While perhaps
not as exciting in the hope of sudden
wealth as the work of the prospector
and developer of mining property, the task of the sur-
veying engineer is of as much or greater importance in
the upbuilding of a great mining community.
Irving Macdonald, senior member of the firm of Mac-
donald & 'Moran, surveyors and engineer, has a record of
great achievements in his work. Montana was his birth-
place, and Helena his native city, where he opened his
eyes in 1870. He was educated in California, and gained
his first mining knowledge in the field and in the office.
He was a member of the firm of Harper & Macdonald
in Butte.
Along with many others who formed a general
exodus of mining men bound for Nevada, Mr. Macdon-
ald went to Tonopah in 1904 and opened an office. His
firm made the first map of Greenwater and has just pub-
lished a new map of the Tonopah district that is prob-
ably the best and most complete ever issued.
Aside from his success in his profession, Mr. Mac-
donald has been active in mining and has acquired inter-
ests in Manhattan, Greenwater, Silver Peak, and several
other camps.
Mr. Macdonald in official capacity is land attorney for
Nevada, having been appointed to this position by the
department at Washington.
71
IRVING MACDONALD
n
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Who's Who in Nevada
WILLIAM J. MORAN
ILLIAM J. MORAN, associate of Irv-
ing Macdonald in the firm of Macdon-
ald & Moran, surveyors and engineers,
is another man who has decided that
Nevada is the best place after all. He
is a natural Nevadan, his father being
one of the prominent mining men of the Comstock days.
Mr. Moran was born in Virginia City, not a very long
time ago. After graduating from the University of Ne-
vada in 1901 he went to Butte, Montana, and entered the
office of Harper & Macdonald, as civil engineer. Not long
after this the old longing for the sagebrush state came
over him and he decided to return to Nevada. Looking
over the list of desirable camps in which he might locate,
he settled on Tonopah and subsequent events show that he
made no mistake.
Mr. Moran succeeded Mr. Harper in the firm which
then became, and has remained since, Macdonald & Moran.
His work in Montana had been of a nature to give him
much actual experience in the mining country and the
firm soon had a business that grew toward every point of
the compass.
Both Mr. Moran and Mr. Macdonald are known all over
Southern Nevada, and in the north as well. Their field
work takes themi into every important district in the great
mining country and they take rank with enterprising men
who came, saw Nevada, conquered all obstacles, and
stayed : reliable successful men, full of confidence and de-
termination.
W. J. MORAN
n
A
Who's Who in Nevada
CHARLES T. GRIMES
N NEVADA CITY, California, no
longer ago than 1882, a boy was born
and christened Charles T. Grimes. The
birth records, if Nevada City boasts of
such records, give his name thus and the
family Bible also bears like witness, but
the young man himself would look up in startled wonder
if addressed as Charles. In Tonopah today "Puddy"
Grimes holds a place in the hearts of the people that i>
entirely his own. When Charles Grimes was old enough
to understand that he had a name, some small youngster
called him "Paddy." Some other more original friend
changed it to "Puddy," and "Puddy" he is today.
In the first days of Tonopah Puddy Grimes drove alone
from his home in California to the scene of the mining ex-
citement and there he has remained ever since. Always
jolly, always willing to lend a helping hand to do for
someone in need, and always the same little smiling fun-
maker, it was not long until he was one of the best-liked
fellows in camp. During the black pneumonia epidemic
in Tonopah, which was little short of a plague, there were
many who learned a side of the man they will never for-
get. People were dying on every hand, and there were no
nurses to be had. During the whole of that long and
memorable winter he worked night after night to aid in
the fight against death. The name of "Puddy" followed
him into Tonopah and he, thinking it a good joke on
himself, registered to vote under the name and later made
his political campaign under the same cognomen. Today
every document which passes through the county re-
corder's office bears the name of Puddy Grimes.
CHARLES T. GRIMES
Who's Who in Nevada.
MARIUS DUVALL
HERE are some men on whom advers-
ity acts as a stimulus ; men who work
and strive and finally see success at
their finger-tips only to see it slip away
before they have clutched it firmly ;
then strive and work again.
To such men the goddess of chance may be fickle many
times, but in the end she bestows her lasting gift. Marius
Duvall is one of these. He arrived in Tonopah on the
stage one day early in the year 1902. In Tonopah he
met Tom Loekhart and bonded from him what is now the
Tonopah Extension Mining Company. He went to San
Francisco with it, but through the short-sightedness of
one of his associates lost the ground.
In 1904 he again appeared in Tonopah and organized
the Tonopah Standard Mining Company to develop
ground in the western part of the camp — convinced that
the enormous ore bodies of this district lie in an east and
west zone. The shaft on this property is now down 625
feet and will be continued to the "Lode Porphyry."
He went to Death Valley and engaged in prospecting
for copper, but suspended operations there until the rail-
roads, now building into that region, are completed.
His career has been a versatile one. Born in Mary-
land, educated at the United States Naval Academy, he
went west about twenty years ago and has been engaged
in mining in Montana, California and Nevada ever since.
There are few experiences that fall to the lot of the
miner that have not been his, and through all of them he
has remained a cheerful optimist.
MARIUS DUVALL
H
Who's Who in Nevada.
WILL C. RUSSELL
HE scion of the family of the pioneers
of California and the Comstock, Will
C. Russell, secretary and treasurer of
the United Mine Syndicate of Nevada,
comes naturally by his love for life on
the desert. His father crossed the
plains in the early days, and his uncle, Charles H. Strong,
was superintendent of the Gould and Curry at Virginia
City.
Will Russell was born in California in 1873 and re-
ceived his preliminary education at Oakland, graduating
from the University of California with the class of '98.
While in college he was Berkeley correspondent for
the San Francisco Call and for three years was manager
of the University of California magazine.
Immediately after his graduation he went to Alaska,
and spent most of his time in the Klondike until the fall
of 1901, visiting in the meantime all the important camps
of Alaska and of the British northwest. Since that time
he has been gaining practical mining experience in Cali-
fornia and Nevada. He was interested in, and in charge
of, properties in Placer, Plumos, and El Dorado coun-
ties, until he became secretary and manager of the United
Mine Syndicate, a company backed largely by eastern
capitalists and operating properties at Bullfrog and At-
wood.
Mr. Russell holds a large block of stock in this Syndi-
cate and has other mining and commercial interests of
importance. He is a partner in the Silver Peak Mercan-
tile Company and the Tonopah Manhattan Forwarding
Company.
WILL C. RUSSELL
Who's Who in Nevada.
THOMAS JEFFERSON BELL
EVENTY miles out from Tonopah, liv-
ing on a beautiful ranch on Reese river,
is a man who had not a little to do with
history-making in Southern Nevada.
He is Thomas Jefferson Bell, and he
has been prospecting in Nye county for
forty-seven years. He discovered Southern Klondyke, the
camp to which Jim Butler was going when he discovered
Tonopah. He is the kind of man to whom any one would
be proud to take off his hat.
Elected to the assembly, he was chosen speaker of that
body, and has seen long service in the interests of Ne-
vada. Almost half a century before Southern Nevada
showed any signs of becoming the great country it is
today, he was living there, making of a strip of barren
land, a beautiful ranch, raising a large family of boys,
and prospecting in between crops.
He has a large fund of good stories gleaned from ex-
perience, and he recounts them with all the delight of a
small boy. |
At one time he had to make out some papers for a
policy in a Masonic aid society. Answering the ques-
tions which were put to him as to his occupation, he said
"mining."
The examiner wrote back: "Can't you give some less
dangerous occupation than mining, and who is your
family physician? Where did he graduate?"
"The only risk in being a miner is that of starving to
death," the Senator wrote back, and, "as for the family
physician — the nearest doctor is a hundred miles away,
and we have never seen him."
THOMAS JEFFERSON BELL
Who's Who in Nevada.
JOHN Y. McKANE
HE faculty of knowing when to buy and
when to sell, a fair quota of luck, and a
generous measure of business ability
are the principal factors that have con-
tributed to the great success in Nevada
of John Y. McKane.
The psychological moment found him in Tonopah, later
in Goldfield, and still later in Bullfrog. In each camp he
was an early investor in some of the best properties. His
first lucky venture in Goldfield was a lease on the Jumbo,
from which he and his associates realized a large sum of
money. An hour after L. L. Patrick had secured an op-
tion on the Combination, Mr. McKane tried to buy the
property, but he was too late. From Tom Lockhart he
secured an option on the Tonopah Extension at fifteen
cents a share. This was sold to Charles M. Schwab, and
Mr. McKane retained a good interest for himself, also
being made Mr. Schwab's representative in Nevada. He
bought other properties in Goldfield and several in
Diamondfield and Bullfrog, selling most of them at the
right moment.
From Nevada, Mr. McKane went to Cobalt, Canada,
where he made another big mining deal. Since that time
he has been visiting his ancestral halls in Scotland. Much
of the time each year is spent at his beautiful country
place in New Brunswick. He is a Scotchman, of mag-
netic personality, possesses remarkable oratorical abilities
and has the proud record of almost invariably winning
that for which he strives.
JOHN Y. McKANE
Who's Who in Nevada.
JOHN C. KIRCHEN
MONG the men who are actively en-
gaged in helping to swell the produc-
tion receipts of Tonopah's mines, is
John G. Kirchen.
Mr. Kirchen is general manager of
the Tonopah Extension Mining Com-
pany's property, and in this capacity he has charge of the
development work of the mine. When the various inter-
ests of Don Gillies made it impossible for him to devote
the necessary time to the active management of the Tono-
pah Extension, Mr. Kirchen wa's chosen to fill his place,
and all who are conversant with the affairs of the mine
declare that the choice was a wise one.
Mr. Kirchen was born at Lake Linden, Michigan,
thirty-five years ago, and he received his mining educa-
tion at the Michigan College of Mines, at Houghton,
Michigan, where he graduated with the class of 1894.
He was connected with various large copper interests in
the Michigan copper districts for six years before1 he
came west. Since that time he has been engaged in the
examination of mines for eastern capitalists, and this
work has carried him into nearly every mining field of the
west. Though a young man, his opinion carries weight
with men of prominence, and he has been remarkably
successful in everything he 'has undertaken.
JOHN C. KIRCHEN
GOLDFIELD
GOLDFIELD
REATEST of all of these is Goldfield.
An infant born of the prodigy Tono-
pah, she, like the Goddess Minerva,
who sprang full grown from the brain
of Jove, was a grown city before she
had become used to being a camp.
Here is a case wherein the child has not only outgrown
the parent but all the ancestors as well.
With a population of nearly 20,000 Goldfield is the
largest city in Nevada. Her wage-earners receive $27,000
a day, or a grand total of nearly ten million a year, and
she is only four years old.
During at least three of those four years the attention
of the entire world has been focused on this camp. The
names of her mines have become common words on the
Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast, on the ocean liners
and in the metropolitan centers of the Old World and
the New, on trains and street-cars. Everywhere men
talk Goldfield. Many who have never seen a mine are
familiar with "high grade." In Goldfield it is the only
thing that counts. The men mine in their waking hours
and in their sleep. They talk mines at breakfast, lunch-
eon and dinner. The theatres play to empty houses and
each one that starts finally closes and the actors depart
for places where they can at least make meal tickets.
People have no time to be amused, and if they had time
they would not care for it. The game they are playing
is more fascinating than any man has ever devised.
To the tenderfoot dropped in the desert for the first
time Goldfield presents a most remarkable sight. Com-
ing out of the blackness and vast barrenness of the desert
Who's Who in Nevada.
at night, into a brilliantly lighted city with cabmen and
bus drivers all shouting at once the benefits of what thgy
have to offer, is enough to startle anyone. To be driven
to an hotel where accommodations are as good as can
be found in almost any city of the size in the world, is
the second surprise, and they come like an avalanche
thereafter.
Everywhere there are beautiful homes presided over
by beautiful women who dress for dinner, have teas and
luncheons, and dances and musicales, just as they do in
New York; who have bridge whist and a woman's club,
and in short nearly everything they would have if they
were anywhere else in the world.
It was not always thus. There are those in Goldfield
who can tell a different story. They remember the day
when a man with a bit of canvas over his head, was a
lucky man. They remember the day when the man with
a piece of sheet iron, had an ideal cook stove, and was to
be envied among men. They remember the day when
bacon and beans were a pleasurable reality three times a
day, and oysters on the half-shell only a dream of the past
or the future.
Men have wrought these changes — wrought them with
their hands, their brains and their money. Millions have
been spent in bringing Goldfield to its present state, but
Goldfield has paid compound interest on every cent that
has been spent for her betterment.
Goldfield's first location was made in February, 1903,
on the north side of Columbia mountain two miles to the
south of the heart of Goldfield, as it is today. Harry
Stimler and William Marsh called the location Sand-
storm, because on the day of its discovery the air was
filled with alkali dust.
Who's Who in Nevada
Water determined the location of the town of Gold-
field for it was around a well at the corner of Main and
Myers street, dug there by A. D. Myers and T. D. Mur-
phy, that the first tents were pitched, and the nucleus of
the city was formed. In October, 1903, with the organi-
zation of the Goldfield Townsite Company, the Goldfield
mining district was organized. The following month the
population cleared away the sage-brush and laid off Main
street. Lots were sold for a song, others were given
away, and many could be had for the squatting. They
tell a story now of one that was sold for twenty-five dol-
lars, later bought for three hundred and fifty, and finally
lost in a single hand at a poker game. That lot is today
worth many thousands.
The postoffice was established in camp in January, 1904,
and that postoffice is today doing a business equal to that
of any city in the United States three times its size.
The camp was started right in the beginning. There
were real mines there almost upon the surface and values
became better all the time. Each new strike was a new
triumph, and when the world heard of Mohawk, Com-
bination, Sandstorm, Kendall, Florence, Red Top, Jumbo,
Great Bend, Gold Bar, and a score of others, any one of
which would be enough to warrant the building of a
camp, the world could not help opening its eyes.
The leasers helped to make Goldfield. Spurred on by
the lure of the shining gold which they knew was under
the ground, and pressed by a time limit, they put all their
money and all their energy to work, and the fortunes
which they have banked, have been their reward.
Goldfield has had a remarkable infancy and a remark-
able growth, but those fade into insignificance in com-
parison with the future which appears to lie before her.
The spectacular element may vanish, but the gold is
there, and her history hereafter will be written in figures.
Who's Who in Nevada
J. P. LOFTUS
HEREVER men gather to develop the
natural resources of the land and build
a community, it falls to the lot of a few
to lead, to many to follow. In the won-
derful story of Nevada's golden out-
pouring of riches there appear charac-
ters who stand out in bold relief against the background
of the majority. In the pursuit of wealth on Nevada's
deserts men pause to speak in praise of the work and
achievements of J. P. Loftus, of the firm of Loftus &
Davis.
What measure of success has come to this man, and
Fortune has smiled on his efforts, is due to perseverance,
to keen business judgment, and to his own honest en-
deavors. Of the men who have made Nevada, Loftus
and Davis stand in the foremost rank.
J. P. Loftus was born in New York. He acquired an
education, as he has done all else that he possesses, by his
own efforts. He was left an orphan at the age of six.
years, but has faced the world manfully on his own re-
sources from that time to this. Mr. Loftus came to the
camp of Goldfield in the early days. As he expresses it,
his office was under his hat, for the first two years.
The mining operations of Mr. Loftus and his partner,
Mr. Davis, have been on an extensive scale, so extensive
that the firm has the reputation throughout Nevada and
the United States of making as many mines as any one
firm in this western country. Both men had been thor-
oughly trained for their work, Mr. Loftus having had
seventeen years of experience. Some of their big ven-
tures were the Block Five lease on the Sandstorm, under-
M
J. P. LOFTUS
Who's Who in Nevada
taken November 23, 1904; the purchase and development
of 100 acres of land comprising the property of the Bull-
frog Gold Bar Mining Company, four miles from Rhyo-
lite ; the Great Bend Mining Company near Diamond-
field, in January, 1906, and the Round Mountain Mining
Company in March, 1906. The latter property was se-
cured in conjunction with J. P. Sweeney, J. S. Cook and
Louis Gordon.
For the accommodation of the News Publishing Com-
pany, of which Mr. Loftus is said to own the control, he
has planned and constructed at a cost of $100,000, the
News Building at the corner of Crook and Columbia
streets, and as president of the Montezuma Club the work
of planning and constructing the new home of that organ-
ization has been entrusted to him. There is hardly a
large business enterprise of merit in which he has not a
finger.
A word concerning the man : Mr. Loftus has a serene
and manly disposition that inspires confidence. He has
an intellectual forehead, a keen, penetrating eye, and a
rugged, honest face. He stands for what is right and
honorable, and his remarkable success is so justly merited
that not even a business rival would attempt to detract
from it.
Mrs. Loftus, before her marriage, was Gertrude Portia
Hopkins. Their boy was the first baby in Goldfield. Many
successful men are prone to take all the credit for their
achievements to themselves, but Mr. Loftus is not of that
class. Speaking reminiscently of his work, he pays a
loving tribute to the woman whose constant words of en-
couragement have upheld and supported him even in times
of apparent adversity, and to her he attributes in great
part that "measure of success" which he modestly admits
he has attained.
Who's Who in Nevada
JAMES R. DAVIS
NE of the ablest men in the business of
mining in Nevada is James R. Davis,
of the firm of Loftus & Davis. Few
men in the state have so many produc-
ing mines to their credit. There are
those who go even farther and say there
is no man who has such infallible judgment and intuition
in choosing properties. As proof of this are six pro-
ducing mines in the Loftus-Davis combination, every one
of which is the result of his judgment in the matter of
location and purchase.
Jim Davis got his education and equipment in the field.
He landed in Goldfield without a dollar, but with fifteen
years of more or less successful mining work back of
him. He was born in Kansas thirty-three years ago, and
began mining when he was still a boy. Mr. Davis went
from Colorado to Goldfield with the first rush, and from
the start his operations were successful. His first fortu-
nate venture was the location and discovery of the Sand-
storm Bonanza, which gave him the name of Sand-
storm Davis. In the early days of this mine's history
a quarter of a million dollars were taken out. When the
excitement of Bullfrog lured many of the Goldfield men
to try their luck in the southern camps, he prospected
there and secured 100 acres of rich mineral ground which
is now the property of the Bullfrog Gold Bar Mining
Company, one of the most promising of that district. This
property has nearly four millions blocked out, and with
the completion of a mill will become a great wealth pro-
ducer. Mr. Davis has always had active management
of it.
101 ..
JAMES K.
Who's Who in Nevada
Following the selection of the property in Bullfrog,
Mr. Davis secured the property of the Great Bend Min-
ing Company near Diamondfield. At this time the prop-
erty was undeveloped, but now the company has exten-
sive workings. Much high grade ore has already been
shipped. Next, following, was the purchase of the
Round Mountain Sunnyside Mine, the original bonanza
of that country. Mr. Davis went there first in March,
1906, when the Manhattan excitement was at its height.
From this mine have come the richest specimens ever
seen in Nevada, and it has produced in bullion at the rate
of $50,000 a month. The last and what promises to be
greatest of all, is the Nevada Hills, in which he is one of
the principal owners, and in the short time Mr. Da-
vis has been interested in this property, the progress
has been so marvelous that it is believed it will be not
only the greatest mine of the Fairview district, but one of
the greatest in the entire state.
Mr. Davis directed the affairs of the Combination
Fraction, ground which has already produced three hun-
dred thousand dollars. He was instrumental in turning
the great Combination into the big merger at four million
dollars, which gives himself and Mr. Loftus a substantial
interest in the merger and makes him a director in the
Consolidated. He has an eighth interest in the quarter-
million-dollar Goldfield hotel, and is connected with va-
rious other enterprises, which are making of Goldfield a
city instead of a camp.
A mining venture that has the stamp of approval of
James R. Davis upon it is sure of hearty supporters, and
the name of Loftus & Davis is one to conjure by. As a
man Mr. Davis is honored by all who know him. He is
quiet and reserved, except to those who know him best.
Who's Who in Nevada
THOMAS G. LOCKHART
HERE is an unassuming, quiet-man-
nered man in Nevada who does not talk
much of himself or what he is doing,
but he is the man to keep your eye on.
His name is Thomas Lockhart and he
has done things in the mining country
that have made the population of Nevada and the West
stand attention. The story of how Tom Lockhart picked
up a fortune that other men had passed by is a tale of the
desert that will never grow old. Here it is :
Born in New Jersey, he came West when a young man
to work as a brakeman on the Union Pacific Railroad,
but the lure of mining soon drew him away from his rail-
road occupation and twenty years ago he began pros-
pecting. He was in Pioche when Tonopah was discov-
ered.
Tom Lockhart is not superstitious. He will back good
sense and sound judgment against prejudice at any time,
and he showed this by locating thirteen claims on Friday.
Future developments have led him to believe that Friday
is his lucky day and thirteen his fortune-bringing num-
ber. He sold his claims in Tonopah and made his first
big stake. At the beginning of the excitement in Gold-
field he threw his sleeping blankets on a freighter and
started for the new camp. He bought several good
claims, among them being a half interest in the Florence,
believed by many to be the richest mine in the section.
When Lockhart first went to Tonopah he was under a
grubstake contract to A. D. Parker, of Denver. When
he paid $5,000 for his interest in the Florence the "wise
ones" stood by and addressed him as "Mr. Easymark" and
THOMAS G. LOCKHART
Who's Who in Nevada
other terms of a similar import. But Lockhart went to
Denver and inquired if Parker wanted to "come in" on
the purchase. Parker did, and the property has been
producing good round dollars ever since.
Mr. Lockhart owns thd Red Rock and the Fissure
group, which he bought soon after he made the purchase
of the Florence. He is holding the ground, which, in his
opinion, is marvelously rich and which he would not dis-
pose of for a million dollars. He is president of the
Jumbo Extension and owns a controlling interest in the
property.
Proving that Tom Lockhart was destined to make a
fortune in spite of all obstacles is the story of his partial
venture into the realms of the brokerage business. He
staked a broker on the proposition that the latter knew the
brokerage business, while Lockhart understood the min-
ing feature. The broker proceeded to lose $20,000 for
Mr. Lockhart, and the only thing he had to offer in lieu
of this large sum of good money was a block of Jumbo
Extension stock, considered at that time a rank wild-cat
proposition. But quiet Tom Lockhart said nothing, just
looked over the property of Jumbo extension and began to
buy more stock. Once more he drew on himself the ridi-
cule of those who thought they knew, but a little thing
like that did not deter him in the least. Now he could
convert his holdings into cash for several million dollars.
Throughout his operations Mr. Lockhart has had the
confidence and backing of A. D. Parker, vice-president
of the Colorado & Southern Railroad.
Lockhart is a "rough and ready" type of person. He has
been described as a quiet, unspoiled man who, notwith-
standing his successful quest of fortune, is still the same
careful little man he was when living on a grub-stake.
Who's Who in Nevada
GEORGE WINGFIELD
ESS than thirty years of age and called
the Napoleon of Nevada finance, is
George Wingfield, vice-president of the
famous Goldfield Consolidated, partner
of United States Senator George S.
Nixon, and one of the most widely
known mining men in the world today.
George Wingfield's fortune and his name as a mining
man have been made by himself — the result of good busi-
ness judgment, ability to handle men, untiring energy,
and to quote an admiring old prospector, "durn fool
luck."
Most of the early part of George Wingfield's life was
spent in Oregon, where he ran the gamut, tackling almost
every kind of occupation known to the man of the front-
ier town from punching cattle up and down the line.
He was in Nevada before the days of the sensational
gold discoveries in Tonopah, and went to that camp from
Winnemucca. He was practically without money when
he landed in Tonopah, and it was there that he made his
first winning. He was always ready to take a chance,
and the Goddess of Luck, fickle goddess to so many,
seemed to be bestowing her bounty on him.
Fresh from financial successes in Tonopah, he arrived
in Goldfield and plunged into the game. Like many oth-
ers who have won fame and fortune in the gold land, he
made his first Goldfield money from a block of Florence
ground, and later the Mohawk, the Kendall, the Sand-
storm, and several others of the winners contributed their
quota to his bank account. The money that he put into
the camp came back to him many fold. Linked with his
::
W, :
GEORGE WINGFIELD
iw
Who's Who in Nevada
name became that of the Mohawk, and Mohawk has
been the magical word wherever men knew of the exist-
ence of Nevada.
It was in the big- merger which made the great Con-
solidated of some of the best properties in Goldfield, that
the executive ability of George Wingfield came to the sur-
face. What men had guessed about him before, they
proved; today his business moves command the admira-
tion of Nevada.
The; Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company, known
in the parlance of the mining man and the stock broker as
"The Consolidated," controls the Mohawk, Red Top,
January, Jumbo, and Laguna, and Mr. Wingfield and his
associates always keep on the alert for other properties.
It is a five million dollar corporation, and is almost as
famous abroad as it is at home. The Mohawk alone has
produced more gold in less time from the smallest acre-
age of ground, than any mine in the world. Ten million
dollars in eight months tells the story in language that is
substantial — all from a block of ground less than three
acres in size.
And the Mohawk is only one of the properties of the
Consolidated.
Who's Who in Nevada
A. D. MYERS
O two men, Al Myers and Tom Murphy,
Goldfield owes her present location—
and this is not more than one little part
of what she owes to these same men.
Possessed of blankets and burros and
and bacon bought with money borrowed
from friends in Tonopah, these two partners went into
what is now the heart of the Goldfield district. Went and
saw and conquered, made a fortune and paved the way
for many men to reap golden harvests.
Al Myers had been working around Tonopah looking
for the golden opportunity but not finding it, when he
suddenly made up his mind that he would go farther
afield, and see what fortune would do for him. He started
out with high hopes, but little did he guess how great
would be the fulfillment of them.
Everyone who has ever heard of Goldfield knows the
result of that trip. Everyone who has ever heard of
Goldfield knows of the Mohawk, and the names of Al
Myers and the Mohawk are almost synonymous.
The Mohawk made Goldfield famous. Even before the
Mohawk there was the Combination Fraction, which was
sold to L. L. Patrick for $75,000, and made a fortune for
Mr. Patrick and his associates. Other claims were located
which are now worth millions of dollars.
Al Myers' first camp was at Rabbit Springs, and every
morning he and his partner struck off over the sage-brush
for the diggings. Always they had their eyes open for
developable water, and when they saw signs of it at what
is now the corner of Main and Myers streets, Goldfield,
they dug a well. Around this well the town of Goldfield
no
A. D. MYERS
111
Who's Who in Nevada
was built. When news of the strike which these two
prospectors made went out to the world and brought other
money-seeking men from Tonopah and various other
sections of the country, the new-comers pitched their tents
around the well.
Al Myers has made a fortune for himself and fortunes
for many other men. He sold the bulk of his interest in
Mohawk when that stock was less than one-fourth the
figure at which it was later quoted, and even at that he
made a fortune from it. Today he has interests all over
the state, and he still sticks close to mining. He is gen-
erally loved by all who know him, square to the core,
good-hearted, genial, vigorous, strong and generous. He
has the spirit of the gambler, and is willing to take long
chances, but he also has a good business head, and in his
case the combination has been a happy one.
Mr. Myers spends much of his time in Goldfield, and
has a beautiful home at Long Beach, near Los Angeles,
where he counts his friends in almost as great numbers
as in Nevada.
Who's Who in Nevada
J. H. MACMILLAN
SK anyone who is the best good fellow
in Goldfield and "Harry Macmillan,"
will be the name you will hear. It is
just as Harry or "Mac" that those who
love him know him. Mr. Macmillan
says that he has but one thing in his
life to be proud of, and that he is the son of his father.
Judge J. H. Macmillan, Sr., was for many years leader
of the Democratic party in Nevada, and a man of power ;
he was an attorney who occupied the front rank in his
profession, but was also interested in mining, so his son
inherited his taste for it.
Harry Macmillan was born in Unionville, a mining
camp of early days, sixty miles from the present camp
of Rosebud. He is a reformed newspaper man. He was
news editor of the Anaconda Standard in Montana for
several years and edited the first Goldfield daily paper.
Before long his mining interests became so heavy it was
necessary for him to leave the paper.
He and his associates now control the Chipmunk Gold-
mining Company, of Manhattan ; the Original Green-
water Gold Mining Company ; the Mohawk Jumbo Lease
Company of Goldfield, and the Mohawk Kewana Lease
Company of Goldfield.
The pronounced success of The J. H. Macmillan Co.
promotions and the Mohawk Jumbo Lease Company, one
of the heaviest producers of the Goldfield District, has
been most gratifying to all who have been connected with
it. The leasers struck high grade ore on March 17, 1907,
and the mine has continued a production of $250,000 a
month since that time. Mr. Macmillan is associated with
J. H. MACMILLAN
114
Who's Who in Nevada
George B. Holleran in the organization known, as The
J. H. Macmillan Company and the Mohawk-Jumbo Lease
Company, and is interested with Malcolm L. Macdonald
in various mining adventures.
Mr. Macmillan is one of the most successful young
business men in Nevada. He has the biggest heart im-
aginable, the kindest smile, the most cordial handclasp,
and the greatest capacity for finding little things to do to
make other people happy. His "streak of Yellow Jour-
nalism," as his friends call his big touring car, is al-
ways in use where it will give most pleasure.
It was in February, 1905, that Harry Macmillan first
arrived in Goldfield, and at that time he had little thought
for anything but newspaper work, though a thorough
knowledge of mining gained in his boyhood days served
him well when he finally determined to devote all his
attention to the search for the magic metal. There are
none who begrudge Harry Macmillan the success which
he has earned. He did much to spread the good tidings
about the camp when it was a very young infant, and since
he has gone out of the newspaper field he has not for-
gotten the boosting habit. "The old adage, "Truth is
stranger than fiction" has always been his policy concern-
ing Goldfield, and he believes that the best thing which
can be done for Nevada is to tell the truth about her
mines.
Who's Who in Nevada
GEORGE B. HOLLERAN
BOUT twelve years ago in an Idaho
towi a group of young men were gath-
ered around a table in a German raths-
kelh r winding up a busy day with a lit-
tle jollification. Two old prospectors,
tirea and cold and penniless, walked
into the place and dropped their packs on the floor. They
stood in one corner of the room alone and looked de-
cidedly down on their luck.
One young fellow noticing their dejected and worn
faces offered a cheery greeting to them to join the party.
He did not guess that invitation would change the whole
course of his life work, but such was the case. George
B. Holleran from that day became a miner. So touched
were the men by the cordial greeting at a time when
the \vhole world seemed to be trying to see how hard it
could kick them, that they became fast friends of Mr.
Holleran. He was in the government land office at that
time, and he began his mining operations from that point
at first, but later gave up all other work to devote his at-
tention to the ever fascinating search for gold.
He mined in various parts of Idaho for several years,
and when he came to Goldfield it was to look after some
interests acquired while still in Idaho. In payment of a
debt he received the lease on the Mohawk-Jumbo, which
has since made a fortune for himself and Harry McMil-
lan of the J. H. McMillan Company, and the two men
became partners. Mr. Macrnillanj says that the heavy
product and excellent returns of this lease are due entirely
to the management of George B. Holleran, who with
Superintendent Bob Dooley made it possible for the lease
to pay its heavy dividend.
GEORGE B. HOLLERAN
Who's Who in Nevada
DR. DELOS ASHLEY TURNER
HERE are few men who know the actual
hardships of pioneer life in a mining
camp as does the camp physician. He
rights every form of disease under con-
ditions that are almost impossible to
combat .
Dr. Delos Ashley Turner went to Goldfield with the
vanguard. He opened an office in a tent and from ther-f
he traveled all over the southern section of the district
to bring help to sick miners and their families. He has
ridden on horseback over sixty miles many a night to
save some sick prospector. He is a young man in love
with his work, full of energy; possessed of a big heart,
of frank, blunt nature which has made him some enemies
and won him more friends than any one in camp, and
six feet five inches of stature.
The son of a Nevada pioneer, he was born in Pioche,
Lincoln County, December 9, 1878.
His boyhood days were spent in that old mining camp
and from there he went to the University of Illinois,
where he graduated in 1901. He became railroad sur-
geon for the Oregon Short Line for a brief time and
later surgeon for the Salt Lake Road with jurisdiction
over Utah and Nevada. He has been County Physician
since December, 1904, and has had charge of the County
Hospital since that was organized. In February, 1905,
he was made District Health Officer, and upon organiza-
tion of the County Board of Health, he became its presi-
dent.
All the time he has been engaged in practicing Dr.
Turner has been interested in mining, and many a pros-
pector has looked to him for a grubstake.
f
I
Photo by Viola Frank Gould
DR. DELOS ASHLEY TURNER
Who's Who in Nevada
^>
DR. W. K. ROBINSON
T MAY be a far cry from the practice
of medicine to the successful operation
of large mining properties, but Dr. W.
K. Robinson has taken the step with a
leap and a bound, and he has landed on
level ground. "Little Florence" Robin-
son, as the big doctor has been called by his friends since
the Little Florence Lease has been turning out a fortune
for him, had no intention of becoming a miner a few
years ago. He was born in Baltimore in 1870, and was
graduated from the Maryland University, later doing
post-graduate work in Johns Hopkins. The practice of
his profession led him to Denver, and like most of the
other men who go into a mining country, he had not been
long there before he became interested in ore properties
all over Colorado. From Denver he came to Goldfield
early in the spring of 1905, and for a brief time it was to
medicine that the doctor devoted all his energy. Here,
as in Colorado, the thought of the golden treasure hidden
in the hills lured him to the search for it, and he turned
his attention to leasing. With George Vickers as his
associate he secured a lease from Tom Lockhart on Flor-
ence ground and organized the Little Florence Mining
Company, of which he is vice-president and manager with
Mr. Vickers. This property has been producing $100,000
a week. Day and night 150 men have been working
underground and the leasers' record has been one that
will long be remembered in the history of Nevada. Dr.
Robinson is also president of the Victor Wonder Com-
pany at Wonder, Nevada, and was organizer of the Mo-
hawk Florence Company and the Iron Cap in the Monte-
zuma District.
120
DR. W. K. ROBINSON
121
Who's Who in Nevada
W. H. CLARK
OLDFIELD'S five hundred residents in
August, 1904, remember an animal re-
sembling a horse, harnessed to a rough
wooden cart with ropes and bailing
wire, and driven by a genial man with a
kindly smile fringed with gray whisk-
ers and a head not overstocked with hair. The man
came among them unheralded, set up his little tent and
went to work. Each morning he started off over the hills
and each evening he returned to cook his potatoes. Some
wit noticing his beard called him "Dad," and "Dad" he
has remained ever since. Clark is his name and W. H.
were his initials which served to identify him in Colo-
rado, Idaho and Utah where he mined for twenty years
before coming to Goldfield. In Goldfield they will have
nothing but "Dad" Clark.
That was three years ago. Today, the little old cart
is not. and the tent and the whiskers have also been rele-
gated to the resting place of antiquities.
The erstwhile owner of them is considered one of the
most prominent operators of the state. He has made
money ever since his first day in the sagebrush land.
With some of the very best properties in the district his
name is identified, and his run of good luck has been long
and strong.
Mr. Clark believes that the man who mines must take
the gambler's chance. He plays for high stakes and
works on the theory that for every success there must be
many failures. He was born in Tekamah, Nebraska, in
1862 and his boyhood days were spent in that section of
the country.
57.?
W. H. CLARK
Who's Who in Nevada
L. L. PATRICK
HE story of the purchase of the famous
Combination Mine and the story of the
advent of L. L. Patrick into Goldfield
are one and the same — a story that only
a second Goldfield could duplicate.
It was in 1902 that L. L. Patrick
first set foot on Nevada soil, landing in Tonopah almost
at the beginning of the excitement there, later going to
Goldfield with the makers of the camp. On October 9,
1904, Mr. 'Patrick secured an option on the Combination
Mine from Al Myers, T. D. Murphy and Harry Ram-
sey. The Chicago backers were slow putting up their
money, and in the meantime Mr. Patrick went to George
Wingfield and T. L. Oddie and made an arrangement
by which they were to take it up. Another person learn-
ing the value of the mine, approached both these men
with a proposition to cut the wires and throw the option
into their hands. They refused, and one hour before the
money was due the first $5000 arrived. Within thirty
days enough ore had been taken out to pay the full $75,-
ooo; to set $80,000 aside for development and to pay
the first dividend. Since then the mine has paid $1,000-
ooo in dividends, and when sold to the Consolidated
brought $5.000,000.
L. L. Patrick, who was born in St. Louis, brought to
Nevada an education gained in the Washington Univer-
sity and School of Mines, supplemented by much active
mining experience.
He has been prominent from the start in the develop-
ment of Goldfield, and today is interested in the Bullfrog
National Bank, Diamondfield Black Butte, Consolidated
and many other properties.
114
L. L. PATRICK
Who's Who in Nevada
MILTON M. DETCH
VERYBOD Y boost ; nobody knock, has
been the motto of Goldfield from the day
of its inception, and a prince of boosters
is Milton M. Detch, of the law firm of
Detch & Carney. There has not been
a single movement for the betterment of
the camp and its interests in which Milton Detch has not
played a part, and in most of them he has been the leader.
He came to Goldfield from Colorado in the early days of
the camp, opened his office in a tent, used a cracker box
for a chair, fried his bacon on a sheet-iron camp stove
over a bunch of sagebrush, and washed his tin cup as did
the other men of the time.
There had not long been mines in Goldfield before thero
came litigation, and Milton Detch and his partner, Pat
Carney, were early on hand to do their share in settling
the disputes. Mr. Detch started the Goldfield Board
of Trade, which later became the Goldfield Chamber of
Commerce, and was one of the originators of the Gold-
field Mining Stock Exchange. When social life became
a necessity for the men of the camp he helped to bring
them together to form the Montezuma Club, which is
now known from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He was one
of those who took a prominent part in forming the Gold-
field Volunteer Fire Department, which has many times
saved the town from destruction. Nature seems to have
endowed him with a capacity for organizing and direct-
ing the affairs of men, and he has brought a large amount
of money into the camp for investment. He is accounted
by all a jolly good fellow, and visitors from all parts of
the world have enjoyed his hospitality and gone away
praising Goldfield.
128
MILTON M. DETCH
12?
Who's Who in Nevada
HENRY WEBER
NTO the state on a brakebeam, and out
again in a big touring car gives the entre
and exit of Henry Weber. It only hints
at all that must have passed in the in-
terim, nor would a dozen1) pages of
"Who's Who" suffice to tell the whole
truth. Since then Henry Weber has written the name of
Goldfield upon the Atlantic coast and upon the Pacific,
and he has left a trail of Boosters for Nevada, all across
the continent. He is one of the men who has helped
to place the camp on the map in letters of gold, and he
will help to keep her there.
It was in the early days of Goldfield that he came with
the first big rush from Tonopah. He had in the few
years of his life done almost everything that a self-re-
specting, adventurous and energetic young man could do,
so the life on the desert was no new thing to him. He
saw a great field of opportunities before him, and he
stretched out his hand and gathered them in. In the
early days he was associated with Marvin Ish and later
promoted several successes for himself — witness thereof,
the Atlanta, Goldfield Oro, Great Bend Annex, and many
others. Henry Wreber was born in Wisconsin, and has
tried the mining game in nearly every state in the West.
Today his interests are not confined to Goldfield, but are
scattered in every direction. He is an energetic young
man with a personality that makes friends rapidly, and
wins the confidence of business associates.
\ • --.
HENRY WEBER
129
Who's Who in Nevada
J. F. DOUGLAS
ROMINENT among the factors which
change a sagebrush waste into a hus-
tling, bustling mining city, is the hotel
man. Some men are born successful
hotel men, and others are made so by
long years of experience, but J. F.
Douglas, lawyer, miner, manager of the new Goldfield
hotel, and one of the most popular fellows in camp,- be-
came a hotel man by chance.
Mr. Douglas was born in Franktown, Nev. He re-
ceived his college education at Berkeley, read law in Cali-
fornia, and in the winter of 1905 came to Goldfield and
began the practice of his profession.
When the old Goldfield hotel became involved in Feb-
ruary, 1906, Mr. Douglas was attorney for the bank
to which the hotel company was in debt. He bought the
hotel himself, and managed it with much success until the
following November when it was reduced to ruin by fire.
The fire only served to stimulate Mr. Douglas to
larger efforts and he interested seven capitalists in a plan
to build a hotel to cost not less than a quarter of a million
dollars. Work on this building was begun December i,
1906, and the opening date was set for Christmas day of
the following year.
The hotel is built of stone and brick, four stories high,
and has two hundred rooms. The furniture was pur-
chased in Chicago at a cost of $40,000. The house is
provided with all the modern conveniences to be found
in a hotel on Broadway, New York, and is considered
one of the marvels of the desert.
The young hotel manager is a member of the law firm
of Pyne & Douglas, and is also secretary and treasurer
of the Combination Fraction Mining Company.
J. F DOUGLAS
191
Who's Who in Nevada
J. C. McCORMACK
HAVING Boulder, Colorado, and a com-
fortable home in the midst of pleasant
scenes, and surrounded by loyal friends,
but bringing with him an extensive and
successful mining experience gained in
Cripple Creek, Mexico, and other
places, J. C, McCormack joined the pioneer colony at
Goldfield while the town was yet in the primeval state.
His transplanted success began almost immediately to
bring forth fruit. Those were the days in which trans-
actions, involving thousands, were made 'twixt morn
and noon, but he had been in mining camps before, in
the heyday of their beginning, and understood the value
of time.
Having quickly made his place as a mining man se-
cure in Goldfield, when, in a few weeks the discoveries
at Rhyolite beckoned the argonauts of fortune to come
on, he was in the rush and secured by purchase some of
the most valuable properties there.
With the galvanizing into new life of Nevada, and the
rich discoveries in many places, he worked fast, and with
unerring judgment, and became interested in nearly all
of the new camps of the state, including Goldfield, Rhyo-
lite, Transvaal, Gold Mountain, Ramsay, and Fairview.
Mr. McCormack was to the manner born, and is by
instinct and training, a mine worker, and a captain of
men ; commanding in appearance and easily a leader
among his fellows ; splendid in executive ability, he ob-
tains the hearty good-will of the men employed. A suite
of offices are maintained in the Nixon building, at Gold-
field. His home on Crook street, is one of simple ele-
gance and genial hospitality.
132
J. C. McCORMACK
Photo by Palace Studio
133
Who's Who in Nevada
HARRY C. STIMLER
HE man who discovered Goldfield is
Harry Stimler. No more interesting
story can be imagined than that of this
young seeker of fortune. He was born
in Belmont less than thirty years ago,
and to date his life has been spent along
the frontier. He was one of the first men in Tonopah
when the rush to that camp began, and realizing that food
probably would be scarce he hauled overland a big wagon -
load of provisions. This he distributed to the hungry
miners. If they could pay, well and good; if not, they
were fed anyway. He staked a number of claims, pros-
pected, dug with pick, suffered with the rest, but always
there remained with him the determination to win. As
Tonopah expanded he believed there was wealth to the
south. Accompanied by William Marsh, he started for
the land of promise and camped on the side of Colum-
bia Mountain. From the rich outcroppings they saw, the
men judged there must be wealth untold. The Sandstorm
Mine is the result. Harry Stimler collected some sam-
ples, had them assayed in Tonopah, and the report con-
firmed his early judgment. In December, 1902, he staked
the Sandstorm, May Queen, Nevada Boy and Columbia
Mountain.
From that time until today Harry Stimler has been one
of the most indefatigable workers in Nevada. His opera-
tions have been extended to other sections and his finan-
cial returns have been large. A less energetic man would
have given up in despair before the obstacles that have
confronted him.
is*
HARRY C. STIMLER
135
Who's Who in Nevada
C. B. HIGGINSON
B. HIGGINSON, partner of Harry
Stimler's in the firm of Stimler & Hig-
ginson, brokers and promoters, is from
Missouri, originally. Being a native of
the "show me" state he has something
of that element in his character, but
while willing to be "shown" at all times, he has been even
more successful in "showing" others how fortunes are
made in Nevada. He is essentially a miner. His experi-
ence has been wide and varied and he knows the mineral
belts of the western country as well as any man. He is
a pioneer in the Golclfield and Tonopah districts, and has
located and developed many rich claims. He was in Dela-
amar at the time of the rush to Tonopah, and came in a
hurry when he heard the news. After the discovery of
Goldfield he was soon on the ground and staked part of
the Jumbo Extension, Gold Bar, Simerone, Vernal, Black
Butte, and other promising claims.
His extensive interests in many rich groups have
brought him wealth and fame, and he has made it possi-
ble for others to reap a golden harvest.
The firm of Stimler & Higginson has been back of
some of the fine properties in the state. Associated with
them at various times have been notable figures in the
development of Nevada, among them James L. Butler,
discoverer of the Tonopah mines, and J. C. Humphrey,
discoverer of Manhattan.
The firm's interests have extended over the greater
part of the southern end of the state: Goldfield, Man-
hattan, Bullfrog, Tonopah, Palmetto, Silver Peak, Kawich
Mountains, Wild Horse, Death Valley Milletts, and Clif-
ford.
136
C. B. HIGGINSON
Who's Who in Nevada
A. A. CODD
OLDFIELD'S wonderful growth from
a struggling mining camp to a city has
not been at the expense of the cause of
education. Here has been built up a
system of schools the equal of any in
other towns of its size, and this is due
in great part to one man, A. A. Codd, deputy district
mining recorder, prominent broker, and clerk of the
board of education. It is not in educational work alone
that Mr. Codd's influence for good has been felt in Gold-
field, but in all lines of action that make for the better-
ment of the community.
Mr. Codd is a native son of California, and spent the
early part of his life in the land of oranges, attending
the public schools of Riverside and later taking a thor-
ough business course in Stockton. From 1900 to 1904
he was head cashier for the San Francisco branch of
Studebaker Bros, manufacturing company.
His advent into Goldfield was made late in 1904 upon
the invitation of his old friend and college chum, Claude
M. Smith, who had been the district mining recorder of
the Goldfield district since its organization in 1903. Mr.
Codd was appointed chief deputy and since that time he
has been the deputy district mining recorder of Gold-
field, the largest mining district in the United States.
During the years 1904-5 fifty to seventy-five location
certificates a day were not unusual records. He is one
of the most reliable brokers of Goldfield.
Mr. Codd was married to Miss Susan R. Patterson,
of Stockton, in 1897, and their cosy Goldfield home is the
center of a charming life.
130
A. A. CODD
Who's Who in Nevada
JOHN TILTON DONNELLAN
HE eastern tenderfoot who comes West
expecting to find in the mining camps
little civilization and few men of educa-
tion has a surprise in store for him.
There is no city in America of the same
size as Goldfield or Tonopah which has
so many college-bred men, and the marvelous growth of
all the mining camps of Southern Nevada is a good argu-
ment in favor of a college education. That a man is better
and more efficient with a college education than he
would be without it seems to be proved by the efficiency
of Goldfield citizens, where the college men are among
the leaders in even thing.
John Donnellan, a Harvard graduate with the class of
'93, is typical of this class. He brought with him to Gold-
field a trained mind and athletic physique and a conse-
quent amount of energy and a determination to succeed.
In Salt Lake, where he lived for a time after* his gradu-
ation, he was in the brokerage business, and it was natural
that he should take up the same line of work in Gold-
field. He opened a brokerage office, installed a private
wire between Goldfield and San Francisco, and soon had
a very large following. He promoted the Golden Sceptre
Mining Company, the St. Ives and several other proper-
ties of well known reputation. He and his associate, J. C.
Robertson, formerly of Norfolk, Virginia, are also inter-
ested in Fairview, Wonder, Yerington, Round Mountain
and Ramsey. They let no opportunity pass to gain :i
good property, and their success has resulted in their gain-
ing the confidence of those who have had deals with them.
John Donnellan is one of the most popular men in
Goldfield. He is a big, manly fellow, loved and honored
by his associates.
140
JOHN TILTON DONNELLAN
Who's Who in Nevada
WALTER CORBALEY STONE
ALTER STONE is considerable of a
hustler. This may be due in part to
some of his early experiences in Gold-
field. Before his achievements are re-
lated it is fitting to tell of his entry to
Goldfield and what befell him on his
arrival. In 1904 he took a trip to Tonopah during- his
vacation. He decided to go on to Goldfield, but as the
stage bookings were all filled weeks ahead, there was noth-
ing to do but walk, which he did. He piled his blankets on
a freight wagon and "hiked." When hd reached the
townsite of Goldfield he cut away the sagebrush and
pitched his tent. Along came one of the future industries
of the town looking for a site, and Mr. Stone obligingly
moved his tent to another location, again cut away the
sagebrush and pitched his canvas. Came another enter-
prise looking for a location, Mr. Stone moved. Again
he pitched his tent, and again he moved out of the path
of progress. After the fourth attempt to find a camping
place in the town, he said, "Me for the hilltops," and be-
took himself to the heights. But by some chance along
came the water company and decided that Stone's loca-
tion on the hill was the best place in that part of the
country for a water tank. Always obliging, he moved
again and thereafter was left in peace.
After leaving the hill he bought a lot on the main street
of Goldfield and erected a building. He went into the
mercantile business, opening the Exploration Mercantile
Company, which he still controls. One of his first min-
ing ventures was to secure a controlling interest in the
Kalfus Lease. He is an Elk and a Shriner and a prince
of good fellows.
Photo by Viola Frank Gould
WALTER C. STONE
Who's Who in Nevada
WEBB H. PARKINSON
NERGETIC young brokers have done
much to make Goldfield the best known
mining camp in the world today.
Among these are few more energetic
than Webb H. Parkinson, who is the
Goldfield Investment Company. Webb
Parkinson came to Goldfield first in 1904, and at that
time the pick and the pan were his implements of trade.
He came on a prospecting trip and had little idea of en-
tering the brokerage business. He was born in Fort
Worth, Texas, but spent his boyhood days in Colorado,
so he was early associated with mining. While he was
too young to work, he watched the miners and listened to
their gold-hunting stories. When he was fifteen he went
into the mines and he worked through Colorado, Wyom-
ing and New Mexico until he went to Goldfield.
In the fall of 1905 he decided to give up manual labor,
and looked around for a wedge by which he might break
into the brokerage business. The Goldfield Investment
Company was the result, and though in the beginning Mr.
Parkinson was not the whole company he soon became
so. He is one of the most energetic traders on the ex-
change and he has been one of the combatants in many
memorable word battles on the floor.
He holds the controlling interest in the Florence Ex-
tension, Black Butte Extension, Black Butte Bonanza,
Goldfield Midnight Pawnee, the Ruby Gold Mining Com-
pany, and the George Washington. He has branch of-
fices in San Francisco, Stockton, Chicago, Los Angeles
and New York. He is a director in the Goldfield Mining
Stock Exchange and also holds a seat on the San Fran-
cisco Exchange.
tow:
WEBB H. PARKINSON
145
Who's Who in Nevada
HARRY Vf. BOYER
oil HE wanderlust that drives soldiers of
fortune across the seven seas and to the
far corners of the earth, not infrequently
directs them to Nevada, the land of
promise — and fulfillment. To this fact
Harry W. Boyer, of the firm of Boyer,
Thomas & Co., can bear witness. The story of his travels
before he came to Goldfield is a recital of ups and downs
in a manly struggle for success that might well adorn a
fiction page.
An Ohioan, born in Bryan, Williams County, July 2,
1862, Mr. Boyer graduated from high school and normal
college before he went to Leadville, Colo., in 1880. He
clerked for a year in a general merchandise store and a
year later went to New Mexico, where he be^an min-
ing. Florida called /him in 1885, and with his part-
ner he bought a big orange plantation and other
extensive holdings. Frosts in 1886-7 injured crops and
decreased the value of all real estate. Realizing what he
could on his property he resumed mining with varying
success in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, being located
in the Cceur d'Alene district for eight years. Longing
again for the West, he went direct to Old Mexico.
Five years later the rush to Tonopah and Goldfield
acted as a call of the wild and summoned him from the
land of the Montezumas. He reached Goldfield in Aug-
ust, 1904,
Mr. Boyer owns mining properties in Yerington, Lun-
ing, Bullfrog District, Greenwater, Lida, Silver Peak, and
last but by no means least in Goldfield and the immediate
vicinitv.
Photo by Viola Frank Gould
HARRY W. BOYER
Who's Who in Nevada
EVANS WHITCOMB THOMAS
EVADA, as a gold producer, has a
world-wide reputation. This is due in
great part to enterprising men who have
proclaimed far and wide the opportuni-
ties for investment in this state. A man
who believes thoroughly in Nevada and
its possibilities is Evans Whitcomb Thomas, of Boyer,
Thomas & Co.
Mr. Thomas originally came from the East as did many
others quick to see the advantages of the West. He
was born in Dixon, Illinois, March 19, 1860, and was
graduated from the University of Illinois in 1882. From
1884 to i8qi Mr. Thomas held positions as cashier or
president of national banks in South Dakota, Texas and
Louisiana. The East called him later, and he traveled
between London and New York from 1891 to 1894, being
connected with big banking houses in the two great cities.
He was appointed commissioner to the Paris Exposition
in 1889, and from 1899 to 1906 he was in the banking
and brokerage business in Philadelphia.
Fitted by such an active career for big undertakings,
Mr. Thomas came to Reno, Nev., in November, 1902.
From there he journeyed through Carson City, Haw-
thorne, and Candelaria to Silver Peak, arriving in Gold-
field May, 1906. He was married in July, 1901, to Miss
Helene Lucas, of Mt. Vernon, N. Y. Mr. Thomas is
interested in properties at Lida, Silver Peak, Yerington
and other sections. The firm has offices in New York,
Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Goldfield, and close connections with European cap-
italists.
E. W. THOMAS
Photo by Viola Frank Gould
Who's Who in Nevada
H. B. LIND
EN come to Goldfield for many things.
Lawyers come ostensibly for the prac-
tice of their profession, but sooner or
later catch the gold fever and thereafter
there is little but mining for them.
H. B. Lind is such a man. Mr. Lind
came to Goldfield equipped for the practice of law. He
studied in Lake Forest University in Illinois, and prac-
ticed actively for six years in Chicago. When he ar-
rived in Goldfield in the pioneer days he came with the
intention of continuing in his profession, but he soon took
down his shingle and began to take advantage of the op-
portunities around him in the mining world. Since that
time to the credit of his name as a mining man and the
gratification of his purse, numerous successful mining
deals have been promoted by him.
As organizer of the General Extension Mining Com-
pany, with 1 10 acres of well situated claims, he made his
first great mark. He organized and promoted the Vernal
Mining Company of Goldfield, and later the Nevada Hills
Extension Mining Company, a property adjoining the
famous Nevada Hills Mine in the Fairview District. In
the Rosebud Mining District, the Ubehebe Copper District
and various others of the bonanza camps of Nevada he
has large interests.
In the social and business life of the camp, Mr. Lind
has been active since his arrival.
Always energetic, always full of faith in the camp, and
always ready to do his part in helping along any work
for the betterment of the community, Mr. Lind is recog-
nized as a man whom Goldfield could not well do with-
out.
•; :o
H. B. LIND
151
Who's Who in Nevada
CHARLES R. MURDOCK
HARLES R. MURDOCK, mining en-
gineer, speculator and mine operator,
was born in Galesburg, Illinois, and
graduated from Knox College with the
class of '88. From there he went to
California, where he entered a mining
school. To gain practical experience, he worked as a
miner for some of the big corporations of Butte, Nevada,
Idaho and Colorado, but as the ambitious man can not
work long for others, and work with contentment, he
soon branched away from day labor and cast his lot with
the men of the pick, who haunt the desert in their search
for gold.
He arrived in Goldfield when that camp was a promis-
ing prospect. From the beginning his operations proved
successful and he soon became associated with several
of the men who have since become the most prominent
operators of the state. When the Nevada Hills Invest-
ment Company was formed for the purpose of buying
good prospects and investing in substantial stocks, Mr.
Murdock was appointed manager. This company has
enjoyed a remarkable success. One large dividend has
already been paid and the company holds sufficient stocks
at the present time to pay a second, and leave a balance
in the treasury sufficient for exploration and purchase
of properties.
Mr. Murdock has an intimate acquaintance with every
mining camp in Nevada. Many rare opportunities pre-
sent themselves to those who are informed regarding the
intrinsic value of the mines and his successful specula-
tions and investments would indicate that he has not
been slow to grasp them.
152
CHARLES R. MURDOCK
Who's Who in Nevada
HAROLD BAXTER
HEN a young man realizes his educa-
tion has only begun after he receives
his classical and technical degrees, there
is some hope for him. Desert "rats"
usually smile at the superior knowledge
of the youth armed with a "sheep-skin"
who comes into Nevada to show the old-timers just where
the gold is to be found and how it is to be removed and
converted into coin. Therefore, when the exception
comes along and admits he has something to learn it is as
refreshing as an oasis.
Harold Baxter, a clever mining engineer, says he did
not consider his education by any means complete when
he was graduated from the Columbia University School
of Mines. He began his active career willing to learn
anything and everything he could from any and every
source. Consequently he succeeded, and he is now con-
sulting engineer for the Loftus & Davis companies. He
was born in Denver, and some of his earliest work was
in the newspaper business. He soon reformed and began
engineering and mining. He opened a mining and engin-
eering office in Goldfield soon after arriving there in
December, 1906. It was not long before his superior
abilities were recognized by Loftus & Davis, and he be-
came connected with that firm. He is admitted to be an
authority in his profession.
He is one of the busiest engineers in the district. His
work keeps him almost constantly traveling from one
property to another examining, estimating, and reporting
on the possibilities of each.
Mr. Baxter is a young man of high ideals and has an
advanced standard of professional and practical ethics.
HAROLD BAXTER
Photo by Viola Frank Gould
H
H
Who's Who in Nevada
FRED J. SIEBERT
^^^S^^^§ memorable June day nearly six years
j|^^^S^^^/f ago when the infant Tonopah opened its
(AA^T iPfm!l e-ves ^"° ken°ld a big Winton automobile
^V^^^^Jx^j come chugging into its tented precincts. J
was soon to be known as one of the most energetic of the
young mining engineers of Southern Nevada. At that
particular time it was the car which attracted the most
attention, for it was the first machine that had ever braved
the desert sand and sagebrush. Little did the people who
turned out to witness this novel spectacle realize what an
important part the machine was to play in the develop-
ment of the state.
Fred Siebert was mining in Utah when the excitement
in Tonopah occurred, and he went to Tonopah as the su-
perintendent of the Tonopah & Salt Lake Company. Two
months after his arrival, which was early in 1901, he took
charge of the property of the famous Tonopah Mining
Company and later had under his supervision the Belmont
and the Jim Butler. Until March, 1904, he remained in
Tonopah, at which time he went to Los Angeles to live.
Recently he again answered the call of the desert and
cast his lot in Goldfield, where he has already made a
place for himself in the front rank of his profession. Mr.
Siebert was born in Columbus, Ohio, June 14, 1874, and
was graduated from the Ohio State University with the
class of '95, receiving degrees in the mining and electrical
engineering departments. His first visit to Nevada was
made in 1897, when he went to Austin to operate a lease
on a mine.
FRED J. SIEBERT
Who's Who in Nevada
RUFUS C. THAYER
>
HE population of Goldfield is becoming
decidedly cosmopolitan. Where a few
years ago were to be seen canvas tents,
the only buildings, and rugged pros-
pectors, hardened and tanned by the
desert wind, the only residents of the
camp, now there are massive blocks, honey-combed with
elaborately furnished offices, and occupied by men gath-
ered from almost every vocation.
Among the scholarly, courtly, gentle-mannered men of
Goldfield is Rufus C. Thayer, who cast his lot with Ne-
vada and is one of the leaders of the legal fraternity. Mr.
Thayer is a native of Michigan, born in Northville, Jan-
uary 25, 1868. He was graduated from the University
of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1891 and soon afterward
became principal of a high school at Manistee
He went to Colorado Springs and began the practice of
law, having been admitted to the bar of Michigan before
he left that state. It was the desire to expound and prac-
tice mining law that led him to come to Nevada. In
Colorado his firm had enjoyed an extensive practice and
was engaged in most of the important mining litigation
of Cripple Creek. The firm of Thayer & Steele has offices
in the Registration Trust Company's new building in
Goldfield. Mr. Thayer has traveled much. He is a
member of the American Bar Association, the Denver
Club, the El Paso Club of Colorado Springs, the Chey-
enne Mountain Country Club, and the California and
Jonathan Clubs in Los Angeles. He is not of the bom-
bastic type, but a quiet, courteous American gentleman.
RUFUS C. THAYER
Photo by Viola Frank Gould
Who's Who in Nevada
GILBERT STANTON JOHNSON
ILBERT STANTON JOHNSON, a
successful mining broker of Goldfield,
is one of the youngest men prominent in
the business life of Nevada. And even
at that he is no new arrival for he cast
his lot with Goldfield in 1904. His cap-
ital consisted principally of a determination to succeed.
However, if the earlier life of this clever young man
is sketched briefly it may bring forth an explanation of
why he was destined to succeed in later years. He was
born in Brighton, Iowa, in 1882. When he was nine
years of age his parents moved into the country. Not
daunted by the lack of educational facilities the boy im-
proved his mind by hard study and extensive reading.
He borrowed enough money to pay for a course in ste-
nography and typewriting at a Des Moines college, and
when he had completed this, went to Chicago, securing
employment with a manufacturing company and later with
a big advertising agency.
Such perseverance and pluck were not to go long un-
rewarded. Coming to Goldfield he opened a brokerage
business and from his typewriter there issued a weekly
market letter. His has grown into a business that ex-
tends throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, and
foreign countries. He is secretary-treasurer and general
manager of the Bullfrog West Extension Mining Com-
pany and owns a controlling interest in the Manhattan-
Whale Mining and Milling Company, and is interested in
other important properties, including the Cuprite Copper
Mining Company and others at Round Mountain, Fair-
view, State Range, Goldfield and Bullfrog.
GILBERT STANTON JOHNSON
-
Who's Who in Nevada.
LESLIE LORING SAVAGE
HE age is the young man's age. Nevada
is the young man's country; Goldfield
is the young man's camp. In every line
of the camp's activities it is the young
man who is forging to the front. Young
men are the heaviest traders on the
stock exchanges ; young men are the promoters ; young
men are the miners, the lawyers, the doctors, the mer-
chants, and the chief factors in every kind of business
life.
The youngest looking man in Goldfield is Leslie Lor-
ing Savage, partner of Walter Whitmore, and secretary
and treasurer of the W. H. Whitmore Company. His
youthful appearance makes him the subject for many a
would-be humorist, and he takes every joke with boyish
good nature in a way that endears him to all his fellows.
Savage was born in Oakland, California, September 6,
1880. He was a member of the '04 class of the Colum-
bia University School of Mines, and he went to Ely early
in that year in the employ of the Nevada Consoli-
dated Copper Company. It wras just at the time when
opportunities were plentiful in Ely, when that camp was
becoming known to the world, that Mr. Savage left the
company he was with, and began prospecting for him-
self. He secured some promising properties and dis-
posed of them during the boom. When he arrived in
Goldfield, he met Walter Whitmore, bought an interest
in the firm, and has since been sharing the labor and the
profits of one of the most successful brokerage, insur-
ance, and operating firms of the camp.
162
"V-
LESLIE LORING SAVAGE
Who's Who in Nevada.
ALDEN H. BROWN
OME men learn mining lore in their
cradles at a time when fairy tales are
usually considered the only digestible
food for childish brains. They grow
up with love of the miner's life planted
in their hearts and bred into their
bones. They could not get away from it if they tried.
Alden H. Brown was the son of a miner — one of the
immortals of '49, whom all sons of California love to
honor. He crossed the plains into California with the first
rush and went through the state in which his son is now
mining. He was placer mining on the Comstock
before the great silver lode was discovered. It was in
Vfinton, Iowa, far from the land of gold that Alden
Brown was born in 1869. From the start he was destined
to be a miner. When he went to college he determined
to be a civil engineer, and he was given that degree in the
University of Iowa. As a civil engineer he built part of
what is now the Rock Island Railroad, but after a few
years of this work the longing for the mines became too
strong for him and he went to Colorado to take up the
profession of his father before him. He had mined in
Alabama, Mexico and Colorado before going to Nevada.
The winter of 1904 found him in Goldfield and since then
he has had an active career in the Southwest. He has
large interests in Lower California.
Mr. Brown is a big, handsome man, a lover of the
rough out-door life, and a true gentleman. He has the
spirit of the adventurer, and his wanderings have shown
him many sides of life. Mr. Brown now has an office
in Goldfield and one at 625 I. W. Hellman Block, Los
Angeles.
V^£^k\* *"
Z**Sjt;
ALDEN H. BROWN
Photo by Palace Studio
•my* i
w
Who's Who in Nevada.
H. D. MAcMASTER
HERE is a jolly, whole-souled, prosper-
ous fellow in Golclfield— H. D. Mac-
Master — who doesn't make much fuss
about himself or his business, but who
is rapidly winning his way to a substan-
tial position in the life of the country.
He is a successful promoter and operator, and in the
three years he has been in camp has handled many im-
portant deals. He is the head of the firm of H. D. Mac-
Master & Company, which has a reputation not bounded
by the borders of the state.
Mr. MacMaster has interests in quite a number of live
districts, notable among them being Goldfield, Yerring-
ton, Fairview and Manhattan. One of his latest invest-
ments is in the Virgen River Oil Fields in Utah. From
this property he has an excellent chance to add materially
to his fortune. He has promoted the Goldfield-Rochester
Mining Company, that gives promise of being something
beyond the ordinary in productiveness. Mr. MacMaster
holds a seat on the Goldfied Mining Stock Exchange and
is prominent in its affairs. He wooed and won a charm-
ing woman for his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. MacMaster
have a pretty little home in Goldfield. Mr. MacMaster is
also well known in Los Angeles, where he and his wife
make frequent visits.
His offices occupy a handsome suite in the new Ex-
change Building on Main Street in Goldfield.
H. D. MACMASTER
1*7
Who's Who in Nevada.
C. O. WHITTEMORE
OMEONE has said that the man who
builds a railroad builds an empire. Be
that as it may, what would Nevada be
today without her railroads, and where
would the railroads of Nevada be to-
day without the keen-sighted, far-see-
ing men who saw opportunities and forced others to be-
lieve in them.
C. O. Whittemore, vice-president and general counsel
of the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad, is a man to whom
Nevada owes much. He was the first official of the Las
Vegas & Tonopah to go over the proposed route with the
engineers, a year before the actual work of construction
was begun, aside from being prominently identified with
the building of the San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake,
of which he was general counsel until recently, when he
resigned to devote all his attention to the Las Vegas &
Tonopah.
To start at the beginning, Mr. Whittemore is a son of
Utah, who became prominent in his own state before he
transferred his allegiance to Nevada. He was born in
1862, and was graduated from St. Mary's school twenty
years later. He began the practice of law auspiciously.
He was made assistant city attorney, but resigned to con-
tinue his law education at Columbia. In 1894 he was
elected county attorney, and in 1898 he was appointed
United States District Attorney for Utah by President
McKinley.
He has cast his lot with Nevada and its interests, and
henceforth is to be classed as a thorough Nevadan, one
who will have not a little to do with the future history of
the State.
C. O. WHITTEMORE
Who's Who in Nevada.
CHARLES S. SPRAGUE
EVADA needs no introduction to
Charles S. Sprague ; first, he is a news-
paper man, and the entire West knows
him through the thriving journal he
has built up in the midst of the desert ;
and secondly Nevada knows and hon-
ors him for what he has done to advance her interests
and proclaim her greatness up and down the earth. He
is a brilliant exception to. the supposed rule that good
newspaper men are poor business men. Mr. Sprague
seems to have succeeded invariably.
He was born in Ohio, the son of W. P. Sprague, for
many years congressman from the Buckeye State. On
the day of his graduation from college he purchased a
newspaper, and he has been a newspaper man ever since.
While in Ohio ,he became prominent in politics and was
appointed internal revenue collector — the youngest man
who ever held such a position in the State. In 1890 he
went to Colorado and founded the Colorado Springs
Evening Telegraph. It flourished, and he established
the Mining Investor. He again took an active part in
political affairs, served in the Legislature and as a mem-
ber of the Board of Pardons. Many honors were his in
Colorado. In 1904 and '05 he was editor of the
Rocky Mountain News in Denver, resigning that position
to buy the Goldfield News, a publication that has a larger
circulation than any other in Nevada. He organized the
Goldfield Publishing Company, which has erected a
$100,000 office building, and is vice-president and general
manager of the Company. He has mining interests
throughout the State, and owns the finest home in Gold-
field ; proving that Fortune sometimes smiles even on a
newspaper man.
it
CHARLES S. SPRAGUE
Who's Who in Nevada.
JAMES L. LINDSAY
i
Y a judicious combination of mining
and banking- some of the most success-
ful men in the West have made their
fortunes, and if perseverance, atten-
tion to business, energy, ability, and
sound common sense count for aught,
James L. Lindsay of Goldfield will be enrolled among the
winners.
Mr. Lindsay began his active career about twenty years
ago when not more than a score of years had been his.
He rose rapidly in the banking business, and has been so
successful in this work that he has devoted by far the
greater part of his time to it, occasionally becoming con-
nected with some big mining enterprises just for variation
and incidentally to add materially to his own bank ac-
count. He was interested in several properties in Colo-
rado before he decided that Goldfield and the other
Nevada camps were the only places really worth while.
Goldfield first saw Mr. Lindsay in 1905. He did not
hesitate or procrastinate, but went to work with a will.
He made his first good-sized Nevada stake on the Lind-
say lease on the Florence. He again turned his attention
to banking and accepted a position with the State Bank
and Trust Company. Of this institution he is now the
cashier.
17*
J. L. LINDSAY
Who's Who in Nevada.
FRED H. VAHRENKAMP
HE first train ever sent over the Las Ve-
gas & Tonopah road into Southern Ne-
vada was booked for Bonnie Clare and
loaded with machinery for the Bonnie
Clare Mine. The day of its arrival was
a happy one for Fred H. Vahrenkamp,
and one of which he never grows tired of thinking. It
marked an epoch in the history of the mine and of its
general manager. With the opening of the road, Los
Angeles became the natural distributing center for the
camps of Southern Nevada and the Los Angeles men who
had invested in mines in the sagebrush state rejoiced.
Most of all, rejoiced Fred Vahrenkamp. In the spring
of 1905, when the railroad was little more than a myth,
Fred Vahrenkamp, mining engineer, and Willis George
Emerson of Los Angeles purchased the Bonnie Clare
mine located in the Gold Mountain District, half way be-
tween Goldfield and Bullfrog. Mr. Vahrenkamp went
immediately to work on the development of the property
and in January, 1906, he and E. A. Forrester and sons,
also of Los Angeles, purchased Mr. Emerson's interest.
With a splendidly equipped mill on top of the ground
and an apparently inexhaustible supply of milling ore
under the ground, the property promises to be a million-
aire maker.
Mr. Vahrenkamp had made a record in his profession
before Bonnie Clare was in existence. He has mined in
Utah, Colorado, South Dakota and California, and was
for some time in the employment of the De La Mar Syn-
dicate of Paris. His professional associate in Los Angeles
before going to Bonnie Clare was Prof. L. H. Mitchell,
formerly professor of geology in Cornell University.
174
17S
Who's Who in Nevada.
LOREN B. CURTIS
NE of the greatest factors in the trans-
formation of Southern Nevada has been
the Nevada-California Power Company.
The construction and operation of this
plant has meant not only light and trans-
portation for all the prominent cities
and camps of that section, but cheap power to operate the
mines and mills as well.
The man who originated the idea of establishing this
great plant is Loren B. Curtis, of Denver, Colorado. In
the Fall of 1904 Mr. Curtis and C. M. Hobbs, of Denver,
came to Goldfield for the purpose of looking over the
mining field, but Mr. Curtis had not long been in Gold-
field before he saw the great necessity of cheap power for
the mining needs of the camp. Mr. Curtis had already
had wide experience in Colorado in the location of water
power plants, and naturally his mind turned toward se-
curing such a plant in a reasonable transmission distance
of Goldfield. Leaving Mr. Hobbs in Goldfield to con-
tinue his investigations in the mining field, Mr. Curtis
went into the Owens River country to look for a suitable
water power site. After spending several weeks in ex-
amining all the tributaries of the Owens River, he finally
selected the present power rights on Bishop Creek, and
made all the preliminary filings for holding them. He
then returned to Goldfield and accompanied by Mr. Hobbs
went to Colorado to lay the power proposition before a
group of Denver's leading capitalists.
The proposition seemed so feasible and so certain of
large success that no trouble was encountered in raising
all the necessary funds for the first installation, costing
$500,000.
LOREN B. CURTIS
177
Who's Who in Nevada.
Nine months after the work was started the plant was
in operation and electric power was being furnished Gold-
field and Tonopah. Mr. Curtis was the engineer in
charge of construction of the transmission line of the
company, from Bishop, California, to Tonopah and Gold-
field, a distance of 113 miles.
While working on this line Mr. Curtis found it neces-
sary to secure water for construction purposes, and nat-
urally his mind was called to the great need of good water
for Goldfield. Upon the completion of his work he turn-
ed his attention to securing by location and otherwise, all
the water in the Goldfield District. The culmination of
this work is now the Goldfield Consolidated Water Com-
pany. This company is now furnishing pure mountain
water to the inhabitants of Goldfield, and the surrounding
district, and is considered one of the greatest factors in
the upbuilding of the camp. Thus Mr. Curtis has been
the moving spirit in two of the most needful and success-
ful enterprises of the Goldfield District.
Mr. Curtis was born in 1869 in Binghampton, N. Y.,
but has spent most of his life in Colorado. He secured
his technical education at the State Agricultural College
of Colorado, taking the degree of B. S. in 1895. Since
that time he has successfully practiced his profession in
the West.
Who's Who in Nevada.
MILTON C. ISH
ANY who came to Goldfield primarily
to mine, saw money in supplying the
needs of the people, and several of the
men who are the most successful oper-
ators today got their first stake by pro-
viding bacon and beans for others. In
the early days of Goldfield groceries were quite as much
in demand as mines, and Milton Ish invested $350 in a
lot on Columbia street, upon which he erected a frame
building and opened a grocery store. That lot is today
worth $15,000. Not infrequently a carload of goods was
sold before it could be removed from the wagon to the
store, and customers lined up on the sidewalk to make
their purchases. In the spring of 1907 Mr. Ish and his
uncle, Frank Ish, who was associated with him, sold the
store that they might devote all their attention to mining.
Mr. Ish had staked Jim Sheets and Tom Kendrick, steady
customers and good boosters for the grocery business, and
the Ish-Sheets lease on the Combination and Mohawk is
the result. They hit the ledge at thirty-eight feet and the
first week took out two carloads of ore, which netted
$4000, enough to pay for all equipment. Nearly a million
dollars has been taken out.
In this lease Frank Ish and E. D. Bowles also had an
interest.
One of Mr. Ish's claims to fame is the fact that he was
the first man married in Goldfield. The ceremony was
performed by Postmaster Collins, who was an acting
justice of the peace. This interesting event took place in
October, 1904. In those days there were no churches.
This was Collins' first appearance as an aider and ab-
MILTON C. ISH
1M
Who's Who in Nevada.
bettor of Cupid, but the bridegroom reminded Collins that
the latter did not need to think he had a monopoly on
nervousness, for he, the bridegroom, was as new to the
performance as was Collins. The bride was Miss Evelyn
Roach, a charming Nevada girl, born about 100 miles
from Goldfield. They have a beautiful home in Goldfield,
whose hospitable doors welcome hosts of friends.
Mr. Ish is now associated with the firm of Marvin Ish
& Brother. He is a popular young fellow, successful and
always a booster for Goldfield and Nevada. He is a
native son of California, born in San Francisco August
19, 1876.
181
Who's Who in Nevada.
_ EPHRIM DEMORE TURNER
NE by one the early pioneers of Nevada
are passing away. Each year the list of
those who lived and fought and won
and lost again in the days before the
railroad came, is growing shorter. Men
of the early days in Virginia City,
Pioche, Eureka, and the other camps which were in their
prime a quarter of a century ago, are very few now ; but
they are grand old men — those who are left — and hon-
ored everywhere.
Ephrim DeMore Turner is a picturesque figure, a man
one might well point to as an example for the youth of
the desert. He was born in Illinois, May 27, 1833, anc^
of actual school life he received one year; he crossed the
plains in a wagon in '52, and stopped at Gibsonville,
Sierra County, where his father opened a blacksmith
shop. For a brief time he mined in California, then went
to Nevada, where he took part in the Indian war of 1860
when a little band of citizens left Viginia City and for
forty-five days waged war against 2000 Indians. He
helped to bury a few of his comrades and a great many
of the foes of his people. In '63, he went to Reese
River, and arrived in Austin the day after the "axe
man" created a panic; he found the place in an uproar;
a man had gone insane the day before, rushed through
the town with an axe, killing or wounding all who came
within his reach; he was never seen after that day, but
for years afterward the mention of the "axe man" would
make the women jump. It is believed he was killed on
the desert by "White Headed" Ross, a man supposed to be
a stage robber and bad man.
*2&x:
EPHRIM DEMORE TURNER
Who's Who in Nevada.
Mr. Turner worked in Austin during the hard times
of the winter of '65, when the best man of the day was
lucky if he got one meal out of three. Men could not
get work for their board ; he worked for 50 cents a day
and at night he divided that sum that some of his fel-
lows might eat.
From Austin he went to Pioche and was in business
there at the time the camp was nearly wiped out by fire
and more than fifty of its inhabitants were killed. He
lost everything in the fire, and had to make a new start.
In '75 he became night watchman for the fire depart-
ment and after that was made constable, deputy sheriff
and then sheriff. The last office he filled for ten years
until U. J. R. De La Mar bought the great De La Mar
Mine and came to him to ask him to become boss of the
bullion gang. Bullion from the mine had to be hauled 175
miles by coach and then shipped from Millford, Utah,
to Salt Lake. It was a dangerous business and one that
required courage, a clear brain and the ability to com-
mand. The bullion was taken out in a big Concord coach
and the boss rode by the driver while two men sat guard
inside.
In two years and seven months five and a half millions
in bullion were carried out in this way. Then the system
was changed. Mr. Turner was made collector of lights
and water, and later, postmaster at Delamar. This po-
sition he occupied until a few months ago, when he went
to live at Columbia to be near his daughter and his son.
As early as '64 he became interested in politics and that
year was made County Clerk of Nye County. In May
'75 he married Kate Brinkman, a fifteen-year-old girl,
who was left an orphan at that time ; three sons and a
daughter were born to them. His wife died some years
ago.
194
Who's Who in Nevada.
JOHN TINNIN
ANY of the cattle kings of old Nevada
have, since the birth of the new Nevada,
become mining men. Some of those
who were feeding beef to the miners of
the Comstock lode and giving little heed
to the wealth of her mines are, since the
discovery of Goldfield and Tonopah, turning their atten-
tion to mining.
Of the men of this class, one who is loved and hon-
ored throughout the state is Col. John Tinnin, formerly
a partner of Governor John Sparks in the cattle industry
of Nevada.
John Tinnin was born in a log house on a cotton plan-
tation in Mississippi in 1840, and when a boy of fifteen
went to Texas, where he entered the ranger service. H?
was for four years in the confederate army and fought
for the cause of the South — stopped fighting Indians and
went to fighting Yankees, as he expresses it. In 1881 he
came to Nevada and a short time later went to Cheyenne,
Wyoming, and induced Governor Sparks to return with
him to the sagebrush state. From '81 until '89 the two men
were partners and their cattle interests steadily grew.
Their range covered 150 miles north and south and al-
most as many east and west. They gradually bought up
the herds of small raisers until they owned 80,000 head
of cattle. In the hard winter of '88 and '89 these two
partners lost half of their stock. In that year John Tinnin
sold out and went to other fields, but it was not long until
he was back again, buying more cattle. Today he has a
ranch in Nebraska of 10,000 acres, and also owns a large
ranch in Texas, where he has a winter home.
Who's Who in Nevada.
For the last year he has been in Goldfield acquiring
mining interests and where he once had no thought for
anything but live stock it is now the mining stock market
which claims most of his attention. Colonel Tinnin be-
gan the cattle business with $1100 worth of stock, 300
pounds of bacon and six bushels of corn meal. He is in
spirit a young man today. Possessed of a keen sense of
humor, a great big heart, a pair of fine blue eyes and a
big stock of sound philosophy, he is a charming man to
meet and a friend worth having.
BULLFROG
BULLFROG
WIRY little man, with keen blue eyes
and sun tanned face, grew tired of pros-
pecting in Tonopah one day early in
July, 1905. and turned his steps toward
the south. Without saying anything
as to his intentions he packed his burros
and started on a long and lonely march for new fields of
fortune. Two years before that time he had come into
Tonopah from the south and had passed through what
is now the Bullfrog District. Retracing his steps, he
went down the Amargosa Valley past the Beatty Ranch
and out upon the desert. Far out in the sagebrush he
encountered a lonely figure, burroless, out of food and
altogether down on his luck.
"Up against it, old man?'' asked "Shorty'' Harris, for
it was none other than the father of Bullfrog who thus
accosted the stranger. The latter's answer was a grunt.
"Saw a big quartz blowout. Looked good to me when
I went through her a couple of years ago. Queer, green-
ish sort of stuff. Want to find it?'' asked Harris.
And in Ed Cross Bullfrog has its second father.
The two men prospected around the hills and on
August 4, 1904, discovered the "greenish looking quartz"
that "Shorty" Harris had noticed on his former trip
through the valley. If "Shorty" was short in stature, he
was long on imagination. The ore was green, the color
of a bullfrog. The pieces of rock, according to "Shorty,"
\vere about as far apart as a bullfrog's jump, and were
about the size of a well-fed bullfrog. So "Shorty" called
the place Bullfrog, and Bullfrog it has been ever since.
He and his partner traveled to Tonopah with samples of
Who's Who in Nevada.
the rock, and immediately there was a rush to the new
district.
Since that time the camp has been forging to the front
in leaps greater than did ever a bullfrog take. A busy
band of prospectors tramped the hills day and night
staking out claims and giving to them names which were
soon to become the watchwords of the district. A town
sprang up here and another one there, and rivalry was
keen between them. A handful of men camped in the
gulch at the foot of Ladd Mountain and a couple of them
started off down the valley to build a town. They platted
a townsite and offered lots to those who would come down.
There was one man that was not included in the general
invitation. He was the camp-mate of Frank Busch and
because of some misunderstanding between himself and
the organizers of the new town he was left out. Frank
Busch, true to his pal, declined the lot offered him, and
formulated a plan to start an opposition townsite. He
did not have any money, but he had plenty of energy and
pluck, and these carried him to Tonopah, where he bor-
rowed $300 with which to found Rhyolite.
The new camp was built in a day. Frank Busch and
his associates did not stop at offering lots to residents of
the rival town, but even moved their places of business
for them. Born in strife, the little town has had many
a battle since, and camp rivalry has been strong. Where
there is rivalry, there is also patriotism and loyalty, and
the men of Rhyolite have been lacking in neither.
Four miles east there is Beatty, the next largest camp
of the district, named for "Old Man Beatty," as the
rancher who had lived there for many years before an-
other white man set foot in the country, is familiarly
known.
Who's Who in Nevada.
The Las Vegas and Tonopah, the first railroad into the
southern part of the State, reached Beatty in October,
1906. Before that time every stick of wood and every
pound of food had to be hauled nearly a hundred miles
over the desert in wagons. Now there are two railways
into Bullfrog, and soon there will be a third.
The mineral zone, commonly designated as the Bullfrog
District, covers an area of about 400 square miles.
The ores are found mainly in quartz and the formation
is usually a highly silicified rhyolite with manganese and
talcous ores carrying a heavy sulphide. Though there
are some high-grade properties in the camp, the district
is essentially low grade with vast bodies of milliner Ore
which many believe will be producing wealth years after
the more sensational camps have been forgotten. It has
required time and courage to bring the Bullfrog mines
to their present state of development, but the men of the
district have been willingly patient. With the opening
of the mill on the Montgomery-Shoshone, purchased by
Charles M. Schwab and his associates, a great era in the
camp's history was recorded. The mill has proved the
feasibility of the reduction of the Bullfrog ores in the
camp rather than shipping them away. It would not be
safe to estimate how many millions are already blocked
out in the mines of Bullfrog, but the figure is one that
will act as a buoy to the men of the district through all
periods of hard times.
Soon other mills will be dropping stamps and the pro-
duction of Bullfrog will prove to the mining world the
truth of all her most ardent supporters have claimed.
Since that day when "Shorty" Harris and Ed Cross
met in the desert, Bullfrog has lived, grown and flour-
ished. She has the ore ; she has the men ; she has the
spirit that wins.
Who's Who in Nevada.
E. A. MONTGOMERY
LONG time ago in Canada a little boy
looked at the hills and dreamed of gold.
He went about his work and his lessons
and his play and through it all he
dreamed that some day he would put
his finger on the spot where gold wras
hidden, bring»it out of the mountain and make him a rich
man. It was in Seaforth, November 4, 1863, that the boy
was born, and it was in the Bullfrog district in 1904 that
the dream began to come true.
The boy was E. A. Montgomery, known in every min-
ing camp in the West as "Bob." It was nearly twenty
years from the time he dreamed his boyhood dreams of
gold until he finally began the life of a miner.
In 1885, ne was farming in Iowa, when the mining ex-
citement in Idaho broke out, and people from every part
of the country flocked in response to the gold cry. Bob
Montgomery heard the cry and he exchanged the plow
for the pick. From that time until 1892 he traveled over
the West, stopping at any section where conditions were
at all promising, and in March of that year he located
the Montgomery Mining District, sixty miles south of
the present site of Bullfrog.
He opened up the Johnnie Mine, and at the same time
did some work in Death Valley. He staked prospectors
who discovered mines in the Panamint District. He
grew tired of Nevada prospects and was about to go to
Mexico when the Salt Lake Road from Salt Lake to
Los Angeles was proposed. In this he saw the beginning
of a new era in mining in Nevada, and he went to work
with renewed vigor in his prospecting. In 1902 he went
E. A. MONTGOMERY
19.1
Who's Who in Nevada.
to Tonopah and soon afterward was chosen because of
his knowledge of the entire southern part of the State,
to act as chief right-of-way agent for a company of Los
Angeles men who proposed building a railroad. He
traveled for 200 miles without seeing any living thing but
an occasional lizard and jackrabbit, and he made a report
sufficient to justify the building of the railroad.
The route he chose would have touched the present sites
of Goldfield, Bullfrog, Lee and Greenwater, and would
have tapped the big borax fields. The company sent an
engineer over the same route, but the engineer could not
see beneath the ground ; he lacked the power to look
into the future which Mr. Montgomery possessed, and
he returned to Los Angeles to throw cold water on the
project.
If that road had been built, the mines of Nevada would
be in a different condition today. Since that time two
roads have been built over the route he recommended,
though at that time and for nearly four years afterward,
the man who crossed the country crossed it on burro-
back or by stage. On the strength of a report of rich
ore discovered by Ed Cross on the original Bullfrog, Mr.
Montgomery made a trip from Tonopah to that new dis-
trict. He drove from Tonopah, traveling all day and
night to get there, and he located six claims. On his way
back he stopped at Oasis; owned by John Howell, a
negro, who was a pioneer of the desert and a friend of
Mr. Montgomery's. There he met "Hungry Johnny," an
Indian, whom he employed to prospect for him. He gave
the Indian two notices of location and was again go-
ing out of the district when at Thorpes Mill he met men
returning from Goldfield with results of assays on Bull-
frog ore. He took a saddle horse and went back the next
Who's Who in Nevada.
day. On his way he passed the Indian's camp and
left word for him to follow and receive a lesson on dis-
tinguishing the kind of rock found to be rich. The In-
dian went to Bonanza mountain, and Mr. Montgomery
showed him the Denver outcropping.
"I catch him all the same ledge/' the Indian said, and
he led him to the south end of the Montgomery mountain,
where he found a well-built monument in which one of
the location notices had been placed. The property is the
same that is now known as the Indian Johnny. H'e then
took him to the Shoshone, and Bob Montgomery that
day located Shoshone No. 2 and No. 3, the latter claim
being the one upon which the rich Shoshone mine was
discovered. He worked all day and that night he wrote
his location notice in the dark. He located the town site
of Beatty and started a settlement there, at the same time
doing preliminary work on fifteen claims.
Then he went to Goldfield to consult his partner.
The partner, T. E. Edwards, offered to sell his claim for
$100,000, and Mr. Montgomery exercised his option by
interesting Malcolm Macdonald of Tonopah to furnish
the first $10,000.
The first stock with a par value of $i sold at $2 a share
and 25,000 shares were required for the completion of the
corporation. The first shipment of forty tons was hauled
out by wagon in April. In January of 1906 the famous
Montgomery-Slioshone lawsuit was up before the courts,
and until it was finally settled in Mr. Montgomery's favor
and with greatest credit to him, no ore could be shipped
from the mine.
Donald Gillies, as manager for Charles M. Schwab,
was sent to examine the property, and just one year after
Who's Who in Nevada.
the date upon which Edwards had disposed of his in-
terests, the mine was sold to Mr. Schwab.
Mr. Montgomery retained one-fifth interest in the mine
and is still a director in the Shoshone Consolidated.
Mr. Montgomery is owner of the Skidoo Mine Com-
pany's properties, is one of the principal owners of the
Brown Palace Mine at Rosebud, and numerous other
properties throughout the State, in addition to being part
owner in a big Idaho mine.
If he so willed, Bob Montgomery could retire from
active operation in the mining field and live comfortablv
for the rest of his life on the harvest he has reaped from
his operations. Instead he prefers to demonstrate to the
world his faith in mining as a legitimate investment, and
he is as active now as ever.
Since those days when he dreamed of the hidden treas-
ures of Mother Earth he has met many disappointments
and has several times been near death. He is a man
who has few enemies ; his is a gentle kindly nature and
if he has a fault, it is his generosity.
His word is as good as his bond, and wherever he leads
in the mining world there are many ready to follow.
SS«iy.it- .. • _ _.
Who's Who in Nevada.
MATT HOVECK
LITTLE German lad not more than
eleven years of age stepped up to the
big superintendent of the Anaconda
Mine in Butte, Montana, one day a
good many years ago, and asked for
work. The foreman looked him over,
smiled to himself, and asked the boy what he thought he
could do. "There is nothing in a mine that you could
do, my lad," said the superintendent. But the boy was
not so certain of that. He convinced the miner that even
an eleven-year-old boy might make himself useful if he
chose so to do. And the superintendent sent him away
promising to see him again later in the day.
At the second meeting he sent the boy to the foreman
who looked at him, laughed, and sent him back to the
superintendent. The latter had taken a fancy to the
plucky little chap and recognized in him the kind of ma-
terial that men are made of.
"Sit down a minute, and I will take you to the foreman
myself," said the superintendent. And the next day the
boy went to work in the Anaconda Mine.
At first his duties consisted of carrying water to the
men in the stopes. Then one thing and another, until
there was little about a mine that the boy did not know.
At the age of eighteen years, Matt Hoveck, for it was
Matt Hoveck, was made foreman of the great Anaconda
Mine. Men many years his senior took orders from him
willingly. His small beginning had grown to be some-
thing large and ever since then Matt Hoveck has been
forging to the front among practical mining men.
Born in Germany, he came to America when he was
MATT HOVECK
Who's Who in Nevada.
about ten years of age. His family settled in New York,
and there the boy received his first knowledge of the
English language.
Before the gold rush into Nevada, Mr. Hoveck mined
in various districts, and had charge of some of the import-
ant mining properties of Arizona. He was in Tonopah at
the time "Bob'' Montgomery went into the Bullfrog dis-
trict, and he met Mr. Montgomery when he was returning
from his second trip into the field of the new excitement.
"Things look pretty good down there, you had better
come back with me," advised Mr. Montgomery, and
Matt Hoveck went. He became superintendent of the
Montgomery-Shoshone Mine, and put the first pick into
Shoshone ground. Under his supervision a prospect be-
came a mine, and he was still in charge when the property
was purchased by Charles M. Schwab.
When Mr. Schwab took over the Montgomery-Sho-
shone ,there were four million dollars in sight, and 1,700
feet of development work had been done. Mr. Hoveck
also had an interest in this mine, which netted him a nice
little fortune. He resigned his position as superintendent
in May, 1906, to take charge of Bob Montgomery's inter-
ests at Skidoo.
As Matt Hoveck made a mine in Bullfrog, so he has
been doing at Skidoo and he has built a town around
this mine. What the Montgomery-Shoshone mine has
done for Bullfrog, the Skidoo mine will do for this new
section, and "Bob" Montgomery and his superintendent
form a team that is sure to win.
Matt Hoveck is a great big good-natured, open-hearted,
generous man. His kingdom is a mine, and the world he
really loves best is the world carpeted with sand and
sagebrush, bounded on four sides by hills of gold and
peopled with miners.
Who's Who in Nevada.
BUSCH BROTHERS
HREE brothers, count 'em, all true blue,
Frank J., Peter A. and J. E. Busch,
form a close family corporation which
is doing big things in the Nevada coun-
try. Frank Busch was the founder of
Rhyolite, that live town in the Bullfrog
District. He, with P. R. Stanley, located Rhyolite and
sold the first lot — for $50. The brothers Busch are na-
tives of Ohio, but are now thoroughly Nevadan. All have
had a wide experience in mining and business ventures.
Frank Busch gained his first mining lore in Colorado,
went to Alaska seven years ago, then tried Arizona for a
time, returned to Colorado and came to Goldfield when
labor troubles in the Cripple Creek District caused active
operations there to be suspended temporarily. The newer
camp farther south attracted himi and Rhyolite is the re-
sult. There he was joined by his two brothers, and they
started a business in mining stocks, real estate and min-
ing properties that has grown to large proportions. The
pioneer brother in Rhyolite also engaged extensively in
Manhattan deals, opening an office there and buying some
fine properties. Later he opened an office in Goldfield,
where he at once became prominent in the business life of
the town. Peter A. and J. E. Busch entered Rhyolite in
1905. The former was superintendent of the Bullfrog
Peerless and brought about the sale of the property to a
big New York syndicate for $100,000 cash. J. E. was
connected with the Cook Bank previous to the time he
went to Rhyolite. He is now secretary of the firm.
They are all practical miners, each has worked
in the shafts and any one of the three can run an engine
BUSCH BROTHERS
201
Who's Who in Nevada.
or put in timbers with expert skill. They have interests
in Lee, Skidoo, Greenwater, Ibex District, Utah oil fields,
Wonder and many other localities. The firm has the rec-
ord of making more sales of -mining property than any
other in the district. Peter Busch is director of the First
National Bank of Rhyolite, secretary of the Rhyolite
Power Company, vice-president of the Board of Trade,
and a school director. Two have yielded to Cupid's darts,
while J. E. has as yet remained a bachelor.
Although the Busch brothers are interested in nearly
every camp in Nevada they still count Rhyolite their home,
and they are patriotic boosters for the town. Personally
there is not a trio of young fellows with more friends,
anywhere in the country. Square, generous-hearted,
wide-awake, energetic boys, they are rightly loved by all
who know them. They can tell many stories of their
early days in various mining camps, and all of them love
the big free life of the West.
A splendid working trio they make. One brother de-
votes most of his time to the actual business of mining;
another, to the brokerage end, and the youngest who is
a thoroughly trained office man, gives his attention to the
inside work.
Who's Who in Nevada.
CURTIS MANN
ATER, water, water ! has always been the
cry of the trail blazer of the desert, and
water has played an important part in
many a desert fight. When a little
handful of men were trying to estab-
lish the town of Rhyolite as a rival of
Bullfrog in the Bullfrog District, one of the chief obstacles
they had! to overcome was the lack of water. Curtis
Mann realized that the town which should first be able
to provide its people with water in abundance would be
the town that would win the fight. With this end in view-
he promoted the Indian Springs Water Company, and in
ninety days after the first paper was signed four miles
of pipe line had been laid, a pumping plant erected, and
water was there for all comers.
Curtis Mann is a splendid representative of the best
type of Western man. He was born in Wisconsin and re-
ceived his education at St. John's Military School, where
he studied civil and mining engineering, but most of his
life has been spent in the West.
He has mined in various parts of Colorado and became
interested in a lease on the Combination Fraction in Gold-
field before he ever saw Nevada. It was to investigate
this lease that he came to the sagebrush state. He is the
kind of man who never lets a good opportunity pass, and
hearing that houses were much in demand in Goldfield, he
sent out two carloads of house tents. The same week
lumber arrived in Goldfield, and when he tried to dispose
of his tents he was met with "I want a house." He had
never built a house in his life, but he made a beginning,
bought all the lumber that was to be had, employed fifteen
CURTIS MANN
204
Who's Who in Nevada.
carpenters and put up fifteen of the first houses in camp.
He went into the Bullfrog District with the vanguard,
built the first frame office building in camp, and this he
occupies today. He has brought as much outside capital
into the camp as any other man.
When he first arrived in Rhyolite he bought many pros-
pects, taking a chance on anything ofTered to him at a
reasonable sum. Many of these he has developed with-
out finding anything, but all the money has been spent
in legitimate mining — it has been put into the ground.
He is among the first on the ground in every mining rush
in the southern part of the State, always looking for the
prospect which will some day make a great mine. He
has the confidence of capitalists in various parts of the
country, and all of them are ready to go into the thing
which he considers the right one. Since he first went to
Bullfrog he has kept two prospectors in the field most of
the time, and one of them broke samples from the ground
which is now the property of the famous Skidoo mine
owned by Bob Montgomery. The samples were taken
from a point within a few feet of the outcroppings which
later led to the discovery of the mine. Energetic and full
of ambition, Curtis Mann is one of the men who will go
ahead in spite of all obstacles.
Who's Who in Nevada.
JUDGE L. O. RAY
HERE is a big little man in Rhyolite
who has a friend in almost every in-
habited block in the southern desert. A
long time ago, or rather a short time
ago, when Tonopah was very young,
he was justice of the peace and the})
called him judge. His name is Lorin O. Ray, but he is
Judge Ray wherever he goes.
A mining excitement in Southern Nevada would not
be the real thing if Judge Ray were not there, for he has
had a share in all of them. He tried his luck in Tonopah
and then he prospected off to the north and located the
present camp of Ray.
He went to Goldfield, but that was also out of his streak
of luck. He sunk the first shaft on the Mohawk ground
but missed the ledge which was later worked as the Ka!-
fus lease.
He struck Bullfrog just at the right time and has
lived there ever since, one of the most respected of re-
spected citizens. Judge Ray was one of the four locators
of the Tramps, Denver, Victor, Peerlesses and Eclipse;
and with his associates realized a comfortable fortune
from the sale of these.
Nye county sent him to the legislature as one of her
three representatives for the last session and Rhyolite has
made him president of her board of trade and given him a
first place among her citizens. He is of small stature, keen
eye, and industrious and fearless nature; as open hearted
and patriotic as they can be found.
Judge Ray is president of the Rhyolite Mining and
Brokerage Company and has heavy interests all over the
state.
JUDGE L. O. RAY
707
Who's Who in Nevada.
SAM F. LINDSAY
ROMINENT among the factors which
go to make life in the desert mining
camp not only bearable but enjoyable.
is the social club.
Tonopah has its Mizpah Club ; Gold-
field its Montezuma Club, and Rhyolite
now has its Shoshone Club. To the credit of Sam F.
Lindsay, county commissioner, miner, business man and
all around substantial citizen, stands the last organiza-
tion. As president of the organization he piloted it
through its early days, and with the help of the prom-
inent citizens of the camp planned the beautiful club
house as a center of social life.
Sam Lindsay is a pioneer in the Bullfrog district. He
arrived here December 13, 1904, and came prepared to
work with the pick. For two years previous he mined
in Tonopah, coming there from Colorado. With him
came George J. Welsh and the two formed a partner-
ship ; while one worked in camp for money with which
to prospect, the other one tramped the hills, locating
claims. They took turn about until Welsh died in 1905.
Mr. Lindsay was born in Burke County, North Caro-
lina, May 3, 1870. He is president of the Bullfrog
Amethyst Extension Company, president of the Hay-
seed and vice-president of the Lee Bell Mining Company,
He is vice-president and director of the Rhyolite Power
Company and director of the First National Bank. He
is a staunch Democrat and was recently elected county
commissioner on that ticket.
Sam Lindsay is honored as a man who is square in
everything. He is a thorough Western man, quiet and
earnest, and true to the core.
SAM F. LINDSAY
Who's
Who in
Nevada.
JUDGE J. B. LINDSAY
UDGE J. B. LINDSAY is another man
of good old Southern stock, who has
sought and found fortune in the West.
After you talk to Judge Lindsay you
know he is a Southerner ; after you
talk to him again you know he is
from North Carolina. There he was born and spent his
early youth. He was educated at Savoy College in Texas
and, imbued with the wisdom he had accumulated there,
began to impart it to others, teaching school for three
years. This occupation was not sufficiently remunerative
for an ambitious man, and Mr. Lindsay went to the Great
Northwest.
While Tonopah was in its swaddling clothes, Mr. Lind-
say arrived on the scene. More or less interested in pol-
itics he was chosen by the Democrats as nominee for jus-
tice of the peace, and his popularity was such that he led
the entire ticket. He was the first justice of the peace in
the camp. This gave him his title of Judge.
Mr. Lindsay entered the Bullfrog District when things
began to boom three. He was one of the promoters of
the Mayflower, Starlight and many other first-class prop-
erties in the surrounding district. He is one of the
heaviest owners of mining property in Lee, and is an offi-
cer and director in a dozen mining companies. He
founded the Rhyolite Mining and Brokerage Company.
Judge Lindsay is and will be as long as he lives in the
district, one of the leaders. Fortune has smiled upon him
and good business judgment and good luck have com-
bined for him. He is prominent in Masonic circles, being
a member of the Knights Templars Commandery.
JUDGE J. B. LINDSAY
211
Who's Who in Nevada.
JOHN L. CADOGAN
ALK if you will about the oldest living
Mason, the only survivor of the Custer
massacre, or the most ancient veteran of
the Mexican war, but here is a man who
will be pointed out in the days to come
as a pioneer, the man who occupied the
first office in the first frame building that was built in
Rhyolite and was the first, broker to engage in business
in that place.
John L. Cadogan, of John L. Cadogan & Company,
brokers, is a California!! by birth. He was born in Oak-
land June 6, 1879.
He became interested in the brokerage business in San
Francisco and when the rush to Rhyolite began to draw
hundreds in its wake Mr. Cadogan was not the one to
be left behind. He arrived in what was then a tent city
in August, 1905.
Seeing the possibilities for a legitimate brokerage bus;-
ness in what he knew was destined to be a thriving camp
and later a somewhat pretentious town Mr. Cadogan
opened an office. Later he was joined by A. G. Cadogan.
The business prospered from the start.
He is prominent among mining men and brokerage
houses in Nevada. Mr. Cadogan was one of the principal
movers in the effort to organize a mining stock exchange
in Rhyolite.
He was elected vice-president of the exchange, and has
given time and attention to its upbuilding.
One of Mr. Cadogan 's most successful enterprises was
the flotation of the stock of the Homestake mine which
is one of the best properties of the Bullfrog district.
JOHN L. CADOGAN
Who's Who in Nevada.
LEONARD B. McGARRY
ESERT transportation, in its natural se-
quence, runs somewhat to this order :
burro, freighting team, and railroad.
The man who is wise enough to go into
the freighting and transfer business in
the days before the railroad comes is
likely to build a foundation for his prospective fortunes,
as Leonard B. McGarry can tell you from experience. In
the spring of 1902 he went to Tonopah and established a
transfer and freighting business between that place and
Sodaville.
The son of a Eureka pioneer, he had the mining fever
fairly well developed from the start, and his digressions
from this occupation were means to an end. When Gold-
field arrived on the map Len McGarry went there and
opened the first lumber yard in the camp, and acquired
mining interests. In August, 1904, he came to Bullfrog
and went into the general merchandise business. His
store building was a tent, for this was before the town of
Rhyolite was even started. He located the property now
known as the Bullfrog West Extension, one of the best
in the section.
He promoted Bullfrog Teddy, adjoining the West Ex-
tension, and one hundred and fifty thousand shares were
offered at five cents a share, from which the property was
developed in a manner to justify the original locators in
advancing the funds necessary to carry on the work to its
present state.
Mr. McGarry has interests in the townsite of Lee and
is connected with the Burro Fraction Mining Company
and the Hayseed Extension Mining Company. In addi-
tion he has locations in Ubehebe.
LEONARD B. McGARRY
Who's Who in Nevada.
JOHN J. FAGAN
HE "Terry McGovern'' of Nevada lives
in Rhyolite and his name is Fagan, with
a John J. before it. He rights just as
hard as Terry, but not quite in the same
way. Not that he does not fight fair,
but his are legal encounters incident to
the disputed rights of all extensive locators and operators
of mineral territory in Nevada, where laws, rules and
regulations are as yet somewhat uncrystallized.
Mr. Fagan came from Denver immediately on the re-
ported discovery of the Bullfrog district. His capital with
which he came to "operate" consisted of $45 ; but his tech-
nical education, practical knowledge of mining and de-
termination to take hold, compensated — as it does in Ne-
vada— for the lack of capital. He is now actively operat-
ing from his Rhyolite office properties in many of the
principal districts of Southern Nevada. He and his men
were among the very first locators of Bullfrog, Green-
water, Skidoo, Lees, Ubeheba, Gold Mountain and other
new camps south of Goldfield.
It was during these "rushes," when dates of location
were frequently designated by the hour and minute, and
overlapping lines could not be closely determined, that he
acquired the titles of "Fighting Terry" and "Fraction
Jack."
He was one of the original owners of a considerable
portion of the Rhyolite townsite. His hundreds of loca-
tions he has developed mostly personally, incorporating
but three companies
His success is largely due to the fact that he has shown
the same energy in the holding and developing of his
properties that he has in their acquirement.
ytf*£
Who's Who in Nevada.
DAN MURPHY
ANY men who tried their luck in Tono-
pah and Goldfield with indifferent suc-
cess, went to Bullfrog with the first
rush ,and in that new field made both
name and fortune. Among the pio-
neers of Rhyolite who have had re-
markable success are the Murphy brothers, four in num-
ber and fine fellows, all of them.
At present there is but one of them in Rhyolite, Dan
Murphy ; his brothers whose names are closely connected
with the early history of the camp, have departed for
other fields.
Dan Murphy was the first of the brothers to arrive.
He came from Colorado where he had been mining for
several years and pitched his tent first in Tonopah and
later in Goldfield. He had learned his ,mining lessons
from the field, and was thus able to take advantage of
the many good opportunities. He secured some good
claims and some of these helped very materially to in-
crease his bank account.
He is one of the inmates of "The Bullpen," and the
Bullpen is famed afar.
Every one who knows anything about the Bullfrog
district knows a little about this jolly bachelor house
around which much of the social life of the camps cen-
ter. With Miles and Clement Millward, and J. L. Cado-
gan, Dan Murphy completes a quartet of royal hosts who
have entertained many a visitor and sent him away
praising the hospitality, and in fact everything else, in
Rhyolite. Young, generous-hearted, daring, possessed
of keen Irish wit and Western broadness, Dan Murphy is
a man who needs onlv to be known to be admired.
DAN MURPHY
111
Who's Who in Nevada.
FRANK P. MANNIX
X the microscopic slide of "Who's Who
in Nevada" there now rests a new
specimen whom we will proceed to ex-
amine with something akin to awe. He
belongs to that much maligned, some-
times feared, occasionally appreciated,
but altogether necessary and useful class known as news-
paper men. These individuals, not numerous but gener-
ally in evidence, have followed closely in the wake of the
pathfinders who blazed the way into the heart of the
Western desert.
Frank P. Mannix, editor and founder of the pioneer
newspaper, the Bullfrog Miner, is a man who has given
of his time and his talents, as few others have done, to
make of Southern Nevada something more than a sage-
brush waste. He was born in Malone, New York, forty-
five years ago. (He does not look it, but the family
Bible can not lie.) At the age of eighteen years he was
publisher, editor, devil and ex-offfcio owner of a weekly
paper at Degraff, Minn., one of Bishop Ireland's colonies.
He served a sentence of six months in Degraff, and then
accepted a job of doing nothing on the Diamond Joe
passenger steamer running between; St. Paul and St.
Louis. He could not stay away from the newspaper
offices and at the time Garfield was assassinated he was
"holding down" the telegraph desk on the Omaha Bee.
(This is not intended in any way to establish an alibi.)
He established the Victor Record, in the Cripple Creek
District, and later was elected clerk and recorder of Teller
County, serving two terms. He came to Rhyolite in Feb-
ruary, 1905.
FRANK P. MANNIX
221
Who's Who in Nevada.
HARRY G. McMAHON
HRILLING experiences on the desert in
pursuit of the fickle goddess Fortune
have not aged Harry G. McMahon, but
they have made him fearless, self-reliant
and strongly adherent to a fixed pur-
pose ; in all, a typical man from Nevada.
His pursuit of this divinity, already mentioned, has not
been without a goodly measure of success, and there is
none that begrudges him his well-merited achievements.
He is the son of John McMahon, a pioneer of the Corn-
stock Lode, who penetrated South Africa, China, South
America, and Mexico in his search for the treasures of
the earth. Harry McMahon was born in Santa Rosa.
California, not so very many years ago. He wandered
through Idaho and Alaska before Nevada claimed him
In the days when Rhyolite was not, Mr. McMahon located
150 claims in the southern part of the state, and has been
prominently connected with the development of this great
storehouse of wealth.
He was interested in bringing about the Mayflower
Consolidation of the Mayflower and Starlight properties,
and he has been among the foremost in the advancement
of many big and profitable concerns. He is also deeply
interested in the Croesus, Banner, and Midas properties.
But that is not all, for Tecopa, Greenwater, and Wonder
claim a considerable amount of his attention.
Harry McMahon is a practical miner who has learned
his lessons from the field, and knows a mine when he sees
it. He numbers his friends in every section of the coun-
try he has visited, and whether in the corridors of the
Alexandria in Los Angeles, or deep underground in a
mine, he's the same genial, likeable fellow.
MANHA' 'AN
224
MANHATTAN
ND still she lives — this is the wonder
about Manhattan. Not that she is un-
worthy to live — the fight that she has
made for existence proves her worthi-
ness.
Leave a man out on the desert crip-
pled and without food and water, and if that man is ever
heard of again it is because he has in him something that
cannot be killed.
No camp in Nevada has been through the fire and come
out as Manhattan has. Because down in the earth she
has the stuff of which mines are made and on the earth
she has men with the faith and courage to make mines,
she is not only alive but forging to the front with rapid
strides. Her men are mining in the ground and not in
other people's pockets.
It has been a troubled life which this camp has led
perched upon the hillsides in the most beautiful portion
of the southern desert.
As long ago as the Comstock days, W. E. Ralston
mined in the Ralston desert. He and his associates were
looking for high grade lead and silver ores and paying lit-
tle attention to gold mining. They called the district
Manhattan. With the demonetization of silver the work-
ings were abandoned and Manhattan was forgotten.
All that was left was the name.
Early in Apil, 1905, Jack Humphrey, a cowboy who
had many times ridden through the district on his way to
Austin or Smokey Valley, and Ed. Seyler discovered gold
north of the former district. They located claims and
went to Tonopah with their assays. These proved bet-
Who's Who in Nevada.
ter than indications promised and the Manhattan of today
is the result.
People went mad over the new discovery. In San
Francisco they had laughed at the idea of investing money
in Tonopah and when Goldfield was discovered they still
turned dubious eyes on Nevada's mining possibilities.
With Bullfrog they were too late and most of them by
that time imbued with the speculative fever made a grab
at anything Manhattan had to offer. Mining men from
Nevada would stand on the streets in San Francisco with
samples of ore.
"Where did you get it ?" was the first question of the
pedestrian, and a mad rush to Manhattan followed. Min-
ing was done on paper. The wildcatters reaped a harvest.
Property was bought and sold and bought again without
ever being seen. In the midst of all this speculation a
few reliable mining men secured some splendid properties.
The gold was there and that was all that was needed.
It is there today. The camp was just beginning to recover
from this gambling era when the San Francisco disaster
came. San Francisco money ceased coming into Nevada.
The San Francisco mine owners had nothing with which
to operate. Mines had to be shut down. And yet Man-
hattan lives.
A few determined men went to work to prove to the
world that the stock market is only a very small part of
mining. They went to work to make mines. With very
small capital they kept somje of the best properties going
and more and more have been opened with each month.
Manhattan has now recovered from a double depression.
The camp is so far from a raiload that it was necessary
to put up mills and this has taken time. Today there are
sixty-five properties in the district showing ore and nearly
mZvjL.
Who's Who in Nevada.
400,000 tons of milling ore developed. Three ten stamp
mills are in operation and four more will be built within
six months. The camp has the largest mineralized zone
of milling ore of any in the state so far as is known at
present.
Prior to the San Francisco disaster there were more
than 6,000 people in camp and it was impossible to get a
bed in the town. Men made fortunes in automobiles run-
ning between Tonopah and Manhattan and prospective
buyers fought for a seat in them.
Now the camp is on the map to stay. She has her Man-
hattan Consolidated, her Manhattan Bryfogle, Rocklin,
Stray Dog, Wolftone, Thanksgiving, Forked Stick, Seyler
Humphrey, Chipmunk, Pine Nut, Paymaster, Manhattan
Giant, Mustang, Little Gray, Grannie, Manhattan Mining,
Manhattan Giant and a large number of other mines.
Though stocks go down, the mines are there and it is
safe to say Manhattan will have more real surprises in
store for the mineral world some day.
Who's Who in Nevada.
CADA C. BOAK
UITE by accident have some of the
greatest mining properties of the
world been -found, and many men have
tramped many times over ground which
later some one man has proved to be
a treasure vault for fabulous wealth.
"The mine that made Manhattan famous" as the Man-
hattan Consolidated Mine is called, was discovered in
just such a way. In the summer of 1905, when the first
rich finds were being made in Manhattan, Cada C. Boak,
then operating in Tonopah, sent Howard Burr, a pros-
pector into the new field and Mr. Burr located among
other properties in the district the claim which is now the
scene of the main workings of The Consolidated.
In the following September Mr. Boak went to Man-
hattan with Mr. Burr and on that trip, while breaking
rock under a tree, Mr. Boak accidently discovered the
free gold which designated the great Consolidated ledge.
He and his companion at once covered up their find and
went to Tonopah to negotiate the purchase of adjoining
property. Mr. Boak then formed the Manhattan Consol-
idated Mines Company and work was begun at once. The
mine is one of the best equipped in Southern Nevada and
Mr. Boak still retains the controlling interest and is at
the helm. He purchased the property and organized the
original Manhattan Mines Company, another of the most
promising mines of the district, and upon the organiza-
tion of the Round Mountain Antelope Mining Company
was made its president. Mr. Boak and Judge Lewis
Rogers of Goldfield claim the distinction of having taken
out of the Antelope mines with their own hands, the
CADA C. BOAK
Who's Who in Nevada.
largest and most valuable free gold nugget ever found in
Nevada.
On Mr. Boak's recommendation a syndicate composed
of himself and associates, purchased the Manhattan
Breyfogle Mine, which is attracting attention by its great
bodies of ore. He also owns the Rogers Round Moun-
tain Mine, and has interests in every other camp of im-
portance in the state.
Mr. Boak was born and reared on a large stock farm
in Hamilton County, Iowa, and comes from staunch old
Irish and Puritan English stock. It was while working
in one of the eastern cities as an "advertising expert"
that he heard of Tonopah. He invested money in small
blocks of stock and finally determined to try what this
young Eldorado of the west held for him. He landed in
Tonopah in the summer of 1904 with $65 of borrowed
money in his pocket and went into the brokerage business.
He soon branched away from this as his private interests
demanded too much of his time. He has offices in Tono-
pah, but his interests in Manhattan make it necessary for
him to spend much of his time there.
Who's Who in Nevada.
JOHN CARL HUMPHREY
HERE was a day not long past when the
cowboy was king of Nevada and many
men who are successful in the mining-
world today have lidden the ranges.
To a cowboy belongs the credit of the
discovery of Manhattan. John Hum-
phrey, who broke the first pay rock in Manhattan, was
born in Austin, Lander County, Nevada, on Christmas
day, 1871. His boyhood was spent in this wonderful old
silver camp and there it was that he learned to use the
rope. For years he had ridden up and down Smokey
Valley and many times had loitered in the canyon which
is now the site of the famous gold camp, but he was
looking for cows then and the possibilities of gold did not
bother him. In 1901, when Tonopah was discovered and
interest was rife in that section, he and his brother,
Charles Humphrey, determined to try their luck at pros-
pecting. He spent much time covering the ground north
and west of Tonopah, and made locations in many places,
but it was not until April, 1905, that he discovered any-
thing that satisfied him. From the ground which is now
the April Fool Mine, he broke rock which appeared to
carry values and after locating the War Eagle and the
Mustang, he took the ore to Tonopah to have it assayed.
The assay report verified his hopes and he at once returned
to the ground. In the midst of the black sage and pine
and juniper trees, he located a townsite and the Manhat-
tan of today is the result. He was successful from the
start in interesting outsiders in his discovery, and the
news spread like wildfire all over the country.
K -Ui!
JOHN CARL HUMPHREY
233
Who's Who in Nevada.
FRANK NAUGHTON
NCE quoted a father to his son in far-
away Ireland — "There is mineral for
all ages but not for all people" — and
with these words he planted in the boy's
heart a desire to be one of the few peo-
ple. Perhaps had these words never
been spoken Manhattan might not be as well known to
the world as it is today. Frank Naughton was born in
Ireland in 1868 and came to America when he was about
20 years of age. He landed on this side of the water
without money and was glad to get anything he could
do to earn a little. For a while he polished pianos for a,
living, but in 1892 he decided to give up everything else
and try his luck in the gold fields. All his life he had
wanted to mine and his first venture was in California.
He went under the ground and learned from mother
earth the secrets of her treasure vaults. It was
in Alaska that he made his first stake. For five years
he mined in Alaska and returned to the states just in time
for the beginning of the excitement in Tonopah. It
was in December, 1901, that he arrived. He bonded prop-
erty in Jefferson Canyon and on Morris Creek, but it was
not until April, 1905, that he made locations in Manhattan.
He located the Big Mogul, on Litigation hill, the Turtle
Dove, Big Chief, Kosmopoge, one, two and three, and the
Thelmas group. In most of these propetries he still holds
large interests and on the Wolf Tone is erecting a mill
which should help to make it one of the greatest producers
of the district. He is a practical miner considered an
authority on mining and a square, big-hearted Nevadan.
FRANK NAUGHTON
118
Who's Who in Nevada.
ROSS MEDER
FTER the mines, come the banks, recep-
tacles for the wealth that Mother Earth
is pouring out. This is the story of a
banker, a young man who went into the
business when he was sixteen years old
and has made more of a success than
falls to the lot of the ordinary man — Ross Meder of Man-
hattan, cashier of the Nye & Ormsby bank in that thriv-
ing town.
No other state can dispute Nevada's claim to Mr.
Meder, for he was born in Carson City, and has spent
practically his entire life to date in this state. He started
in the banking business about the year 1890 in Carson
City.
In 1901 Mr. Meder went to Tonopah to accept a posi-
tion with the State Bank and Trust Company. Now he is
cashier of the Nye & Ormsby Bank at Manhattan. Ever
since the early days of Tonopah the young banker has also
been interested in mining. He has interests in the Man-
hattan Comstock, Wolf tone and Gray Dexter, in Man-
hattan, and in the Jim Butler Extension at Tonopah.
Never satisfied unless he is progressing, Mr. Meder is
recognized as one of the leaders in his line of business in
the state, and is always prominent in advancing the in-
terests of Nevada and Manhattan. He has a firm belief
in Manhattan as a permanent mining camp and he is one
of the good boosters who has done not a little to make
the name and fame of Manhattan known far and wide
He is a popular, likable young man, everybody is his
friend, and he has the confidence and respect of the busi-
ness interests throughout the state.
ROSS MEDER
M7
Who's Who in Nevada.
EDWARD L. RAYMOND
DWARD L. RAYMOND, cashier of the
Bank of Manhattan, might have been
either a great newspaper proprietor or
an attorney, had he followed any hered-
itary instincts generally supposed to
exist. He is the son of Edward E.
Raymond, one of New York's most prominent attorneys,
and he is the nephew of Henry Raymond, one of the
founders of the New York Times. However, the West
lured him away from any career the East might have had
in store for him. In 1870 Mr. Raymond became vice-
president of the State National Bank of Denver. He saw
that city grow from a population of 30,000 to 150,000.
During the boom days in Leadville he was in that camp
and, in fact, has spent the greater part of his life some-
where near the frontier line.
Mr. Raymond's experiences gave him an excellent
knowledge of mining and of the growth of business in-
terests in mining towns ; consequently, he was glad to ac-
cept the management of the Manhattan Bank when it was
offered to him by B. L. Smith, whom Mr. Raymond had
known in Colorado. This is the only home bank in Man-
hattan, and it has been popularized by Mr. Raymond.
He knows how to meet men and how to talk to them. He
understands Nevada business conditions probably as well
as does any man in the state, and his business judgment
is sane and sound.
Mr. Raymond likes Manhattan, and Manhattan likes
Mr. Raymond. He thinks it is a good camp and a good
place to live. He has proved this by taking his family
there to live in a home that he owns.
EDWARD L. RAYMOND
ROUND MOUNTAIN
Ml
ROUND MOUNTAIN
ONE of the new bonanza mining- camps
of Nevada has a more remarkable or
unique history than that of Round
Mountain. No other camp in Nevada is
able to duplicate the following wonder-
ful list of achievements on which it
bases its claim of being the biggest-feeling camp on earth.
First. — The mines of Round Mountain have) been
proven and developed without the aid of any outside
capital. From the time the first shovelful of dirt was
turned, the gold taken out has been more than sufficient
to carry on the work.
Second. — Before the camp was a year old there were
two mills at work turning out approximately $30,000.00
worth of gold bullion per month.
Third. — The first extensive placer fields of Nevada
were discovered on and around Round Mountain. The
discoverer took out $40,000.00 worth of gold in six weeks.
The dry-wash, hydraulic and sluicing methods of extract-
ing the ore are all successfully used.
Fourth. — Properties giving promise of developing into
the greatest of the world's tungsten mines have been dis-
covered in the district. This alone, without an ounce of
gold, will make Round Mountain famous the world over.
All of this, be it observed, before the camp had cele-
brated its first birthday. It is the purpose of this article
to briefly relate what this young giant has done since its
first anniversary, and the tremendous projects which it
proposes to undertake, many of which are already under
way.
Gold was first discovered here on March 2nd, 1906, by
Who's Who in Nevada.
two prospectors, "Slim" Morgan and L. R. Scott, on the
Sunnyside claims.
Today the town of Round Mountain stands alone as
"the town that had no boom.*' It has a school, a public
library, a bank, a hotel, a mining stock exchange and the
usual complement of mercantile houses, stores and broker-
age and business offices. The Round Mountain Nugget,
a weekly ten-page newspaper, has a plant second to none
in the state, which is owned by Henry J. Bartlett, the
editor.
In point of development three mines stand pre-eminent
at this writing. They are the Sunnyside, Fairview and
the Sphinx, each having two thousand or more linear feet
to its credit. All three of them are gold-producers, the
first two mentioned having their own mills now in opera-
tion, while the Sphinx has a Huntington in course of
construction. These two mills are crushing out $80,000
monthly, and it is but a matter of a short time before it
will be necessary to increase their daily output in order
to keep pace with the constantly increasing ore tonnage
which these mines are yielding.
Other properties in the district which are actively en-
gaged in "mine making" are the Homestake, Antelope,
Mohawk, Blue Jacket, Cahill, Round Mountain Annex,
Great Western, Comstock, Daisy, Combination, Red Top,
Royal Hawaiian, Spink Extension and Nevada Gold Trail.
From both the Daisy and the Antelope properties have
come some of the most beautiful specimens of flower and
wire gold that have ever been exhibited. Leases have been
let on both of these company's holdings and the leasers
bid fair to become rich men long before the expiration
of their contracts. Several have already made their stake
and in passing it is fair to state that the opportunities for
Who's Who in Nevada.
leasers were never better than they are at Round Moun-
tain. A large area combined with rich free milling ore,
make the conditions ideal for men who are seeking leasing
propositions.
But it is not only in hard rock mining that this camp
has made and is making its wonderful record. As stated
in the beginning of this sketch, Round Mountain has
placed before the mining world the placer possibilities of
Nevada in a serious light. It is probably safe to say
that up to the time the Round Mountain placer grounds
were discovered, not one prospector in ten gave placer
fields in Nevada a thought. Nowadays every intervening
foot of space over which the prospector travels is fraught
with golden possibilities, and instead of the long, weari-
some and uninteresting hikes from range to range, every
dry channel, basin or flat may "look good" enough for a
halt and a try-out at panning.
Thomas Wilson was the discoverer of the Round Moun-
tain placer fields, and from the small dry-wash machine
worked by two men, has been evolved the tremendous sur-
face mining undertakings of the Round Mountain Hy-
draulic Mining Company. In a desert country the lack
of water seemed a well-nigh insurmountable obstacle to
hope for the installation of hydraulic and sluicing meth-
ods, but by means of great pipes, conduits have been laid
which carry the water from a distance of seven miles.
It is this copious water supply, and the proximity of
well-timbered hills which have supplied the fuel enabling
Round Mountain to make the great strides that it has.
Of an area of over thirty square miles which comprise
this district, less than two square miles have been system-
atically and thoroughly prospected for placer ground.
About a mile and a half to the northeast of the camp
Who's Who in Nevada.
lies the famous Round Mountain Monster Gold Mining
Company, on whose property the original first discovery
of tungsten was made during February of 1907. It was
while prospecting for gold that the general manager of
the company, J. C. Popper, found the quartz stringers
which carried this valuable mineral. The ground has
since developed larger surface showings of that metal than
are at present known to exist anywhere in America.
Tungsten is not a newly discovered metal, but the dis-
covery of a myriad uses for it have increased its value
and made it as much sought for as gold. Based on assay
leturns, the tungstic acid of the Round Mountain dis-
trict give higher values than are obtained from any of
the mines of Australia, England, Germany or the United
States.
Besides its story of gold and tungsten, Round Moun-
tain has its tale of silver, and no conception of fiction is
woven about with more romance.
In the midst of the solitary grandeur of Jefferson can-
yon, practically alone, Charles Harrison and Charles Kan-
rohat have lived since the early seventies without the ex-
change of a friendly word of greeting. As young men
they came into Nevada during the excitement of the silver
days, and each of them staked off a group of claims on
opposite sides of Jefferson Canyon, and set to work to
open them up. Both of them had good properties, and
they prospered. Thousands of dollars were taken out
of the ground until the decline in silver occurred, and
then it was found that with the antiquated methods of
mining existing in those days it was no longer profitable
to mine for silver. Then it was that these two men were
left alone. Of all the teeming camp that had grown up
in the canvon onlv those two men had faith in the future,
Who's Who in Nevada.
and the hope of an ultimate awakening- and they stayed
on.
Iti was at this time that a slight misunderstanding
estranged the two men, and in the years of their loneli-
ness the bitterness grew so that even in this new era of
gold and cheap mining methods, when once again they
have come into their own and each has sold his mine, the
mines which each had worked alone and unaided through
the long years between the silver days and the discovery
of Round Mountain, when each has come into a compe-
tence which will permit of his living in affluence the re-
mainder of his days, the bitterness still rankles, even
though the cause of the bitterness may have become for-
gotten through the lapse of years. The burning desert
sears deep.
The old Charles mine which was the property of Harri-
son, was purchased by a syndicate of men who formed
the Round Mountain Allegany Mining Company.
On the Kanrohat property sixty thousand dollars worth
of work has been done, consisting of a mile of tunnels and
shafts. A million tons of ore are in sight. This ore is
principally of free milling character, about two-thirds sil-
ver and one-third gold.
Their dream of the rejuvenation of the old Jefferson
district has at last been realized. The renaissance of this
canyon after its Rip Van Winklian slumber of more than
a quarter of a century is but one instance of where famous
old silver mines have received their quickening1 in the
adoption of modern methods of handling and milling ore.
That the Round Mountain district has a great future is
conceded by all who have studied its possibilities, and the
camp has not as yet attained to the dignity of having
discarded its swaddling clothes.
wW£
Who's Who in Nevada.
JOHN F. STEBBINS
ATTLEMAN, sheepman, ranchman,
miner, if ever there was a typical son of
Nevada, he must be John F. Stebbins of
Round Mountain. His is the story of
years of hard work on the desert which
at last has brought him wealth. His
childhood and early youth were spent in Austin, where
he was born in 1868. Jefferson Canyon, a dead min-
ing camp that had been worked in the early seventies,
attracted his attention, and with F. W. Dixon he
went into the cattle business there seventeen years ago.
For sixteen years he lived within four miles of the present
camp of Round Mountain and tramped and rode all over
that section without dreaming of the wealth that lay be-
low.
In 1891 Mr. Stebbins located placer claims in Jefferson
Canyon. In 1901 he discovered the Golden Hope mine in
the canyon and discovered Round Mountain by finding
gold on the Saddleback claim, now known as Round
Mountain Extension. The following year he and Mr.
Dixon ran a tunnel 100 feet on Mariposa, and December
i bonded the claims to Louis D. Gordon, who worked
them for an eastern company. On February 20, 1905,
Stebbins and Dixon located the Sunnyside claims for Gor-
don, and on March 3 free gold was discovered on these
claims by E. R. Scott and Luther Morgan. On March
1 6 Stebbins and Dixon sold the claims to Loftus & Davis,
who now own the famous mine. Mrs. Stebbins her-
self, in 1905 located the Antelope Claim, which she sold
to C. C. Boak. Stebbins and his partner owned nearly
Who's Who in Nevada.
all the water rights in the district, which they recently sold
to the Round Mountain Daisy Mining Company.
Mr. Stebbins married Lena M. Rogers, a true Nevada
girl, and Mr. Dixon married a sister of Mr. Stebbins.
Both men were cowboys in the early days and know Ne-
vada as do few others. Their partnership is based on
absolute faith in each other. They have worked together
for years, have never had any written agreement, not
even the scratch of a pen, and not once in all the years
has a disagreement occurred to mar their happy relations.
When you write the story of one partner you write the
story of the other, for closer than brothers have they
been. In Jefferson canyon they have lived for so many
years with almost no companions but the members of their
two families and without any amusement except that
which they could manufacture for themselves.
Mrs. Stebbins knows enough about mining to make the
average city-bred woman open her eyes in wonder, and
from her own locations she has made a large sum of
money. Since fortune has come to the two families they
are the same simple folk as before, content to live a happy,
wholesome life.
»4t
Who's Who in Nevada.
HENRY J. BARTLETT
EVADA has no more loyal son than
Henry J. Bartlett, and Round Mountain
owes more to the personal efforts of this
one man than to any other influence
which has gone to make this district
known to and appreciated by the outside
world. Less than one month after the discovery of gold
in the Round Mountain District, Henry Bartlett founded,
and housed, the plant of the Round Mountain Nugget, a
virile and up-to-date eight-page weekly newspaper. His
confidence in the coming greatness of the district may
be inferred from the fact that $10,000 was put into the
venture when less than a dozen tent houses and not over
fifty persons, comprised the sum total of the community.
The story of Round Mountain is the story of Mr. Bart-
lett. They have grown and prospered hand in hand,
and with "The Nugget" Bartlett has shown the way.
His mind it was which conceived the Round Mountain
Hydraulic Mining Company, and his energy which
brought to fruition the possibility of this gigantic scheme
of placer mining with water. To his indefatig-
able effort is due the fact that the Daisy Mining Com-
pany came into possession of all of the valuable water
rights of the district, which in turn is supplying the city
and surrounding mines.
There are but few propositions in the district in which
if he is not an officer, director, or the promoter, he is a
share-holder.
He has the distinction of being the first newspaperman
in the State to travel about in his own automobile, which
is christened the "Nugget Flyer," and Bartlett and his
"Flyer" are known in all of the great Nevada camps.
HENRY J. BARTLETT
til
Who's Who in Nevada.
CHESTER O. OLIVE
HERE is a man in Round Mountain
who has more than a passing regard
for "hunches" and perhaps it is with
good reason. Just before the earth-
quake in San Francisco, Chester O.
Olive, who had business interests
there at that time, got a "hunch" that he wanted to go
away. He did not know just why, but he finally deter-
mined that it must be the gold fever and three days be-
fore the terrible catastrophe, which left the city a mass
of blackened ruins, he sold everything he had and started
for the gold fields of Nevada. That was just at the be-
ginning of things in Round Mountain and there he de-
termined to pitch his tent. He did not know much about
mining, but he knew a little about the needs of a miner
and started a small store. A few months later he be-
came postmaster and it was not very long before he started
the Round Mountain Banking corporation.
At present there is not very much in Round Mountain
which this young man is not. Ask for the postmaster and
some one will point to Mr. Olive ; ask for the banker and
it is Mr. Olive you will be shown ; ask for the secretary
and treasurer of the Round Mountain Hydraulic Company
and again Mr. Olive is indicated.
All his "hunches" seem to have been good ones. He
was one of the purchasers of the famous Charles Mine
in Jefferson Canyon, which was shut down as a result of
"the crime of '73." With the changed conditions of today
the present owners expect to make a great thing of the
mine. Though a young man, Mr. Olive is one of the most
substantial citizens of the camp.
252
CHESTER O. OLIVE
Who's Who in Nevada.
THOMAS WILSON
HOMAS WILSON, discoverer of the
rich placer diggings at Round Moun-
tain, has made a fortune by the dry
washing process. Hence his Nevada
sobriquet, "Dry Wash" Wilson. To
him is due the credit for launching one
of the greatest industries in that part of the state, for on
October 10 of this year water was turned into the pipes
of the Round Mountain Hydraulic Mining Company, and
the work of taking out the riches was begun on a large
scale. As the discoverer of the rich diggings Mr. Wilson
in three months took out $50,000 and convinced his as-
sociates that a great hydraulic plant only was needed to
make the workings a producer of millions.
Mr. Wilson made his discovery while prospecting in
the Round Mountain District in the spring of 1906.
Early in the summer he installed two small hand dry
washing machines. This was on the property of the
Round Mountain Mining Company and Round Mountain
Combination Mining Company, where he secured leases,
also making a number of valuable locations adjoining
these properties. With Henry Bartlett, Captain Thatcher
and Loftus & Davis as associates he promoted the Round
Mountain Hydraulic Mining Company, whose plant now
is in operation and which, it is expected, will yield
$5,000,000 within a brief period of time.
'•fffiffl*
OLD NEVADA
257
OLD NEVADA
GENERATION passes away and an-
other comes; the customs, the hopes,
the joys and even the sorrows of an
age die, and new ambitions, new cus-
toms, new hopes, new joys and in-
evitably new sorrows, replace them.
Northern Nevada is waving a last farewell to one gen-
eration and extending a welcoming hand to another. The
discovery of the goldfields of the southern part of the
State has brought new life, new impetus and a vast land
of opportunities.
Ten years ago, if a prophet had chanced to visit the
fireplace of some stock-raiser or rancher far out of the
beaten path of civilization and had predicted that within
a very few moons men would bring from barren lands
riches enough to bestow power and plenty to every man
in Nevada, the stock-raiser or rancher would have
laughed, and would have gone quietly on tending his cows
or following his plough.
When the men of the north said farewell to the Corn-
stock days they thought they were through with mining
in Nevada for all time and settled down to make the
apparently fruitless soil bring forth their support. They
are grand old men ; they have fought a grand fight, year
in and year out, with little hope of great riches ahead,
their only ambition to glean what they could from the soil.
They did not suspect that new men would come into the
State, open new treasure stores and bring wealth to those
who had seen her through her worst days.
With Jim Butler's discovery of Tonopah — somehow
everything seems to date from that discovery — the stock-
Who's Who in Nevada.
m
raiser of the north was forced to open wide his eyes, and
he has kept them open ever since. So great has been the
effect producd by the wealth dug from the southern
mines in the last few years that every city, every town,
every sheep-camp and every ranch has been benefited
thereby. The man who passed through the speculative
days of the Comstock and thought the germ of specula-
tion dead in him forever, found it awake and quicken
every pulse when the new bonanza stock market came into
being. He invested his money — the little he had saved
from his years of toil — and like most of those who came
in on the crest of the new excitement he reaped a rich
harvest.
Reno a few years ago little more than a railroad center
where travelers stopped over night or for a meal between
trains, is now a city — a real, live city, that has become
headquarters for a host of men operating in every section
of the country. The wealth of the southern part of the
State has built for Reno handsome business blocks, beauti-
ful homes, and various gigantic enterprises which go to
make of a town a city. There is no more ideal place in
the State than this same bustling little city built on the
banks of the beautiful Truckee River.
And the favors have not all been one-sided. The
northern part of the State has given to the south her
sons, the best of her young blood, imbued with the mining
germ bequeathed to them by their fathers and lying dor-
mant within them until the spark of this new gold set it
aflame. Sons of old Nevada have done much to develop
the resources of the new land of promise and fulfillment.
They have helped to make her mines ; they have helped
to build her railroads ; they have helped to organize her
banking institutions ; they have sent to her doctors,
Who's Who in Nevada.
lawyers, brokers, merchants and men of every line of
achievement.
There are those in old Nevada who are prone to cast
glances of scorn on the young men of the south ; to call
them "mushrooms'' and "Johnny Come Latelys" and other
such names, but these men are few. Most of the old
men of the north are just and generous. They realize
that if southern Nevada owes a debt to northern Nevada,
northern Nevada likewise owes her new era, her renais-
sance, to the southern treasure vaults. Some of the men
of the south are "mushrooms" and "Johnny Come Late-
lys," but they are none the less true Nevadans. They are
no less men of power, men of courage, men of energy,
men willing to fight for Nevada and willing to love her
for all time. Though they are adopted sons, they are
loyal sons. They take off their hats to the men who have
seen the State through her days of poverty and hardship,
and all thy ask in return is a little recognition for the new
life they are bringing her.
The Comstock was great. The mention of her name
even today thrills every hearer who knows of her glorious
history. But the Comstock was not all of Nevada, and
even those who are living in the past awaken from their
lethargy to listen to the tales of new wealth. Many of the
names that are connected with Nevada's history have been
erased from the earthly roster, and rapidly the last of the
white-bearded monarchs are going to answer to the roll-
call in a distant land. This is the "between" stage in the
northern part of the State. One generation is passing
away, another is coming.
When this new mining era is passed — it may be years,
it may be centuries — the stockmen of the north will still
be driving their herds from one range to another; the
Who's Who in Nevada.
rancher will still be wrestling with the soil as he has
wrestled since the days of the first early settlers. The
day will come, and all indications would advise that it is
not far distant, when the now barren lands will all be
under the command of man, and at his behest bring
forth all that man needs.
As mining is the salvation of Nevada now, so will agri-
culture be in some distant day ,and the word "water" will
tell the story of the great transition.
And as one generation passes away and another conies
to take its place, there is honor and praise to the men of
the north, to the sturdy pioneers who first made Nevada,
and to themselves and their sons who stand ready to
succor the State in the every hour of her need.
Who's Who in Nevada.
COL. T. B. RICKEY
OLONEL T. B. RICKEY has so many
interests in the State of Nevada that one
frequently wonders what would ever
have become of this sagebrush land had
the Colonel not happened along. With-
out doubt, Colonel Rickey has done more
than has any other one man to develop the state. He is
one of that class of men who does things, a man intended
for great accomplishments, who hates failure and who
honors the man or woman who succeeds.
Born in Ohio, August 23, 1836, he crossed the plains
to California in 1852, a boy sixteen years of age. He be-
gan mining in Amador County, but soon turned his at-
tention to stock raising and took a drove of cattle into
Antelope Valley, Douglas County, Nev., driving them
over the hills from California. He did not have any cap-
ital, and the only assets on which to build a fortune were
his own youth, energy and ambitions. He prospered in
the cattle business, and when the miners were taking gold
from the Comstock he was supplying the beef for the
camp. Colonel Rickey's youthful ambitions were
more than realized. He is known as the cattle king of
Nevada ; has 42,000 acres of land in Antelope, a ranch
in Alpine County, Cal., and recently sold to Los Angeles
the largest of the water rights in Owens River Valley. He
has devoted much time to the study of irrigation and owns
extensive water rights. Much' arid land has been re-
claimed by him. Colonel Rickey is president of the State
Bank and Trust Company of Nevada, the Goldfield Con-
solidated Water Company, the Homer Wilson Trust
Company, which includes the old Sullivan Trust Company
COL. T. B. RICKEY
Who's Who in Nevada.
and other large interests throughout the state. He has
founded a chain of banks through the state and has
erected the largest building in Southern Nevada, an im-
mense five-story brick block on the main street of Tono-
pah, which is the home of the State Bank and Trust Corrp
pany. He has extensive mining interests in many dis-
tricts, and is an owner of the Nevada-California Power
Company. Colonel Rickey has a handsome residence in
Carson City, where also is located the home bank of the
State Bank and Trust Company. His interests keep him
traveling most of the time. As his accomplishments
prove, the Colonel is a man of wonderful executive abil-
ity, untiring energy and keen foresight. He can see into
the future and has the faculty of recognizing an oppor-
tunity and seizing it. Colonel Rickey is a staunch Re--
publican in politics, and although he has been many times
offered the nomination for governor he steadfastly de-
clines to accept any office.
His success has come from his own efforts entirely. He
is widely known throughout the western country and in
the east as well.
He is in Carson today, Tonopah tomorrow, Goldfield
the next day, and perhaps speeding east to New York or
west to San Francisco the day after. His big automobile
can be seen trailing over the desert at all hours, and its
owner seems never too tired to work just a little bit more.
A man with less energy than Colonel Rickey would have
long ago retired from active business life. Not so with
Colonel Rickey. He is as active today as in the early
clays of his career, and he has no intention of soon going
out of harness.
Who's Who in Nevada.
SAMUEL PLATT
N Nevada people have to go ahead to
keep from being run over, according
to Samuel Platt, United States attor-
ney for that district, and Mr. Platt fol-
lows the go-ahead doctrine if there is
any man in the state that does. A large
majority of the young men who have been born in Carson
or other nearby cities, have grown up and gone away to
seek their fortunes in other fields. A few have stayed
and have been successful in a remarkable degree. Strik-
ing among those successes is Sam Platt. It was on Nov.
17, 1874, that Joseph Platt, one of the pioneer merchants
of Carson City, became the father of a son whom he was
to see within a few years occupying a position such as few
men of his age in America could hold. Sam Platt's boy-
hood was spent in Carson City and he was graduated from
Stanford University with the class of '96. The follow-
ing year he completed his course in law at Columbia Uni-
versity. He was admitted to the bar at the age of 21 and
entered politics soon after his return to Nevada. He was
on the minority side and his fight has been uphill since
the beginning.
As the republican candidate for district attorney of
Ormsby County he was defeated, but at the next election
was placed in the legislature and received the republican
complimentary vote for speaker. The democrats were in
the majority and the speaker was chosen by them. Mr.
Platt was nominated for attorney general on the republi-
can ticket, but was defeated by Jim Sweeney, now asso-
ciate justice of the supreme court. The lives of these two
young men have been strangely interwoven. They were
Who's Who in Nevada.
boys together in Carson City and have been fast friends
through all their political battles. Both were in the legis-
lature representing opposing parties and during their cam-
paign for the attorney generalship they went around the
state throwing compliments at each other.
After his defeat for the office of attorney general, Mr.
Platt was again elected to the legislature and this time he
was made its speaker. In January, 1906, he was ap-
pointed by President Roosevelt United States attorney
for the district of Nevada.
During these years he also served as assistant secretary
of state and United States referee in bankruptcy, but his
private practice increased so much that it was necessary
for him to give up these duties. *nCTOft LJbHBj
Mr. Platt made the speech which started George S.
Nixon's boom for the United States Senate and he also
made the speech nominating James A. Yerrington for
congress on the republican ticket in 1905, after first de-
clining the nomination himself. He has stumped the state
several times in the interest of the republican party and
is known as a fighter for the ideals in which he believes.
In the legal world he has gained a name as well as in
the realm of politics. In his private practice he repre-
sents some of the most prominent men and the largest
corporations of the state.
A man of remarkable versatility is this young lawyer-
politician for he adds to his other accomplishments a
knowledge of music and love of it which has resulted in
bringing much pleasure to his associates. He is a bachelor
and has had little time for cupid's game, but is popular
with men and women alike, wherever he goes.
•:sw>
Who's Who in Nevada.
OSCAR J. SMITH
ROM cowboy to bank president and one
of the foremost men in the state is the
record of Oscar J. Smith, a record that
he modestly says is nothing. There is
in Nevada probably no man who knows
more of mining, stock raising and bank-
ing conditions than Mr. Smith. He has had an interest-
ing career. Rhode Island is his native state, and it wel-
comed him in 1859. He went to school in Massachusetts,
and in some manner he contracted the "western fever/'
He arrived in Colorado in 1880, and for the next three
years worked as miner and as a cowboy on the big ranges.
Then he began a remarkable rise. Mr. Smith became con-
nected with a smelter in 1884 and in six years he worked
up from the position of roustabout through the lead and
silver refineries to a position as assayer, and later became a
traveling ore buyer. In 1890 he engaged in the business
of buying and selling ores for himself on the west coast
of Mexico, at Mazatlan and later at other places.
Mr. Smith went to Reno in 1896, and not contented with
his achievements to date, was admitted to the bar, was
elected president of the Eureka County Bank in 1898, and
a year later became identified with Mr. Griffin and his
brother, Bert L. Smith, in the Eureka Live Stock Com-
pany. From 1905 Mr. Smith has devoted considerable of
his attention to banking, having been chosen president of
the First National Bank of Elko in 1905, and in the same
year president of the Southern Nevada Banking Com-
pany, now the First National Bank of Rhyolite. In 1906
he was elected vice-president of the Bank of Manhattan.
268
OSCAR J. SMITH
Who's Who in Nevada.
All Mr. Smith's time is not devoted to personal inter-
ests. He is a prominent Republican and was a delegate
to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in
1900. In 1904 he was elected long-term regent of the
University of Nevada, and this office he still holds. He was
the Republican choice for Congress in the last election.
Mr. Smith is a big, handsome man, a natural leader of
men, but at the same time gentle mannered and courteous,
as is always the true Westerner.
With the personality of the true Western man, and the
determination to make good in everything he attempts,
it is little wonder that success has beamed upon him so
graciously. His wife is a beautiful and charming woman,
and their home in Reno is the scene of much delightful
entertaining. Whether it is the banker, the lawyer, the
stockman, the politician or the host whom one appeals to
in Mr. Smith, the man is always the same.
Who's Who in Nevada.
W. R. RIDGE
R. RIDGE, "Roy" Ridge, mining oper-
ator, heavily interested where prospects
are the brightest, almost went to Alaska
instead of to Nevada, but circumstances
interfered. For this he is probably
glad, and Nevada is not at all sorry.
He is the type of a man that is willing to take a chance
and match his wits and judgment against the desert. He
was born in Kansas in 1876, and just twenty years later
he came west, intending to go on to the Klondyke. But
he failed to get any farther than California, where he
soon found work in Former Governor Markham's mines
in Hedges, as millman. He also obtained some valuable
experience in the mines of Sierra County and later in
Senator Kearn's famous Silver King Mine.
Now comes a story of ups and downs in Nevada : Mr.
Ridge went to Tonopah and worked as foreman in the
Montana-Tonopah Mine, then entered the brokerage busi-
ness in Tonopah. He was one of the first dozen or so
men to get in ahead of the rush to Goldfield, going there
to prospect. He helped measure the Jumbo and Florence
claims and a year later secured a lease on the Jumbo with
U,ri Curtis, which made history for the camp under the
name of the Ridge-Curtis Lease. They took out $300,000
in ninety days. Mr. Ridge located thirty claims in the
heart of Goldfield in 1903, but sustained an accident to his
finger. Blood poisoning developed and he was forced to
go out of the desert for medical treatment. Had he been
able to stay with his claims they would have brought him
a fortune.
Upon first reports of a find at Fairview in February,
^fl
W. R. RIDGE
Who's Who in Nevada.
1906, Mr. Ridge and P. H. McLaughlin, with whom he
was associated, decided to see what the new field offered.
The two were playing pool in the Montezuma Club at the
time. "I'll match you," said one, "to see which goes to
look over the prospect." They matched, and the lot fell
to Mr. Ridge. He went, and the first day in Fairview he
selected the ground which he purchased two weeks later
from Joe Davis, a Tonopah prospector. It is known as
the Dromedary Hump Mine, named from the shape of the
hills. It took Mr. Ridge two weeks to find the owner of
the property, but it is now one of the most promising in
the district.
Mr. Ridge's home and office are in Reno, but his in-
terests are many throughout the state. He was the lead-
ing factor in building the telephone and telegraph line into
Fairview, which connected that camp with the outside
world. rr^-
Picture a man who has accomplished all this and you
have a likeness of Mr. Ridge : manly, straightforward, a
representative of the young mining men who are "mak-
ing" Nevada.
Had he been a different stamp of man — one less ener-
getic and more inclined to rely on the efforts of others,
Mr. Ridge might be back in Kansas City today instead of
occupying the prominent place in Nevada history which
is now his. A member of a family well provided with
this world's wealth, he might have been content to idle
away his time and spend the money which others have
made, but he was not. He wanted the pride and joy of
feeling that if success and fortune came to him it should
not be of the ready-made kind, but of his own fashioning
and built upon hard work. When he arrived in Nevada
he brought little more than the average prospector, but
he will have much more to take awav.
Who's Who in Nevada.
J. BURRO
HEN the history of Nevada is made and
written ; when the honor roll of the he-
roes of the pick and pan is called, there
is one name that must not be missing —
that of J. Burro. Always in the fore-
front, never faltering under heavy
loads of responsibility, this maker of Nevada upon whom
the searchlight is here turned for the first time, stands
unabashed, though modest, with those to whom this great
mining country owes its discovery and development.
Born of humble though honest parents — Mr. and Mrs.
J. Burro — the subject of this sketch claims Any County,
Nevada, as his home. Early in life he began to display
those qualities which later were to bring him prominently
before the public. He had few educational opportunities
except those offered in his own home under the tutorship
of his mother. But he was quick to learn, and inheriting
sturdy characteristics from his parents, who were pio-
neers, he soon entered actively into prospecting and
freighting business. His strength and endurance were
such that almost invariably he bore all the burdens while
his partners walked lightly by his side.
Mr. Burro has been instrumental in discovering and
locating some of the best properties in the State. He
penetrates the remote districts bringing back samples for
assaying and reports of wealth that startle the world.
While not particularly handsome, Mr. Burro has an
honest, genial, expression that inspires confidence. He is
deeply interested in the State's development, and his voice
is raised frequently proclaiming the riches of Nevada.
-""£-^\*
J. BURRO
2f5
• WHO'S WHO
Chemist and Assayer
Certificate of Assay of Mr. Nevada Man
SAMPLE
ORE
POUNDS
oz.
VALUE
Manliness -
36
8
$150,000
Honesty - -
34
6
375,000
Optimism -
12
12
45,250
Loyalty - -
22
10
33,700
Patience
9
9
1,050
175 Ibs of
Boost - - -
26
1
93,500
pay dirt
Knock - - -
Luck - - -
13
2
17,300
C2H60
1
Good Fellow-
ship - -
9
11
19,200
Pure Gold -
10
4
26,000
Totals
Nevada Man
175 Lbs.
$761,000
,
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